Moondust
by Lady.Katie512
Summary: Taking place after The Force Awakens, Kylo Ren gets a second chance from Supreme Leader Snoke, as well as a second chance from Rey.
1. Chapter 1

Chapter One

 _I'm building this house on the moon_ _l_ _ike a lost astronaut_ _..._

"Bring her to me."

The Supreme Leader was clear in his order. Kylo Ren lowered his eyes from the giant hologram before looking to General Hux, standing next to him with a tight jaw and his eyes straight ahead.

Only a handful of Resistance X-Wings, his father, the Wookie, the traitor, and _her_. That's all it took to destroy the greatest weapon the galaxy could even think to perceive. And Snoke was blaming Armitage Hux.

Kylo had received his own earful, with the only blame of losing Rey falling on Kylo's shoulders. Even that was lessened at the admiration the Supreme Leader had for Kylo, who had mercilessly cut down Han Solo. The wound on his face was angry and stung, but nowhere near as bad as having killed Han. He might as well have stabbed himself through with his own lightsaber.

Hux looked to Kylo and he could see the man's jaw muscles flex. He didn't have to try to see the man was angry at him. Kylo took a deep breath in before turning and making his way out of the room, his boots clicking against the ground with his long strides.

"This is your final task," Snoke stopped him halfway to the door. Kylo didn't turn around, instead he stood stiff, mere feet from the exit. "Do not fail." Without an answer Kylo began walking again, finally out of the room and leaving Hux to what awaited.

Outside the room he remained as rigid and intimidating as possible. He didn't like walking around the Finalizer without his helmet, but it was lost with the Star Killer Base. So he walked with his shoulders slightly back, and his spine straight, and always with a look on his face like he might kill the next person to look at him.

He made his way down to the control center first, looking for Captain Phasma. His very presence was enough to put the crew on edge, everyone looked uncomfortable or frightened, except for Phasma. Kylo contributed it partly to her helmet and partly to her height.

"Sir," she greeted him, stoic.

"I need you and your best men ready to leave within a day." Kylo tried to avoid his own reflection in her chrome armor and immaculate black lenses as he spoke to her.

"Do we have a mission?" She asked him, still as she spoke and Kylo thought of her like a statue.

"A manhunt," he answered her shortly.

"We will be ready," she complied after a moment of silence. Kylo didn't respond to her, instead he turned and left as quickly as he had come. He _hated_ that everyone could see the face he had to share with his former self. From there he made is way to communicate with the rest of the Knights of Ren.

Kylo sat in near darkness, Darth Vader's burned back before him. There was utter silence in the room, Kylo sitting with his eyes closed and facing the mask, meditating in a way. His thoughts were of what Snoke had told him before Rey had escaped, about his weakness being compassion for the girl. How could he not feel that way?

A low growl left his lips as he opened his eyes and was met with Vader's mask. "I will not be seduced," he said with determination. "But I need your guidance." _Please_. The plea never left his lips, even though he was alone in the room. He wasn't in a position to beg from the dead. He, instead, reached out with the Force, trying to sense any change in energy from the helmet. Instead what he felt was a darkness moving along the halls towards his chamber. The Knights of Ren had arrived.

Kylo Ren stood from the foot of his bed. He was already ready to leave, he had been ready to get off the Finalizer the moment the Star Killer Base had been reborn as a new sun.

The door slid open for him and he stepped into the hallway, to see the seven Knights of Ren making their way towards him. They stopped before him and bowed their heads for a moment.

"We brought you gifts," the woman in front stated, Zora Ren. Two more knights moved forward, one holding a helmet to him and he took it, a slight feeling of relief flooding through him. The face of the helmet wasn't too entirely different than what he had before, the helmet itself was the same as the other knights. It still had the chrome detailing on it, however it was new. New and virgin to battle. He moved to put the helmet on, deciding he would have to do something about it being so new when he saw the second gift. It was a cape, heavy black fabric folded in the Knight's arms with a chain clasp. Kylo recognized it immediately.

Before Kylo could reach out to even touch it, the knight who had handed him the helmet moved behind him to help him out of his cloak, the one that had been singed and burned while battling Rey. The second draped the heavy cape around his shoulders and the weight of it almost made him smile.

Looking back to Zora, he saw she had taken her helmet off to fully appreciate Darth Vader's cape around Kylo's shoulders. Her light brunette hair was done up in braids to keep the curls close to her head with the helmet on. She was happy, her bright green-blue eyes showed Kylo that although her mouth was relaxed. "Where did you find this?" He asked her, still resisting the urge to smile.

"It's my understanding we have a long journey ahead of us, perhaps I'll tell you," she told him and the pair began to walk forward, both of them replacing their helmets and the six other knights following suit.

"It depends on how fast we find our girl," Kylo answered her, the distortion over his voice from the mask made him feel almost as good as Vader's cape.

"Who are we looking for?" Zora asked him, keeping pace with her shorter legs, although she did turn to glance at him.

Kylo didn't respond to her at first, pondering his answer. "A scavenger from Jakku."

"The Supreme Leader has us chasing a girl from Jakku?" Zora was shocked for a moment before she could probe Kylo further.

"You saw what she did to me," Kylo's jaw was tight, most of his excitement leaving him. Zora was silent to him, as the knights crowded a lift and made their way down to the ship bay.

His shuttle was already prepped, along with two others, forming a short staggering row. Before them, Kylo made out General Hux and Captain Phasma, along with twelve Stormtroopers.

"I hope you have an explanation for taking Captain Phasma along with you on this escapade," Hux had his arms behind his back in a formal manner, however Kylo knew he was furious.

"She's a formidable ally," Kylo offered his answer, knowing it would do nothing to please Hux.

"And do you have any idea how long you'll be gone?"

"Do you have plans for her?" Kylo asked him in return and the general clenched his jaw. "You can help us return faster if you finally locate Luke Skywalker."

"We've been tasked with finding the scavenger, not Luke." Armitage Hux had the courage to argue with Kylo in front of his knights and in front of Captain Phasma and the handful of Stormtroopers. Right in the middle of the ship bay.

"Rey will be with Luke," Kylo explained with a short temper and Hux rose one of his eyebrows at the use of Rey's name. _Don't you dare, don't you say anything_ , Kylo silently warned him. Fortunately Hux knew his boundaries and stepped aside for Kylo.

"Travel safe," he told Kylo and the Knights of Ren mockingly as Phasma ordered the Stormtroopers to split between the two other shuttles, only two following the knights, a pilot and copilot.


	2. Chapter 2

Chapter Two

 _Lookin_ _g_ _at you like a star_ _f_ _rom a place the world forgot_ _..._

The trip was taking longer than Kylo Ren had expected. Anywhere they searched lead to false leads and speculation based solely on rumors. Kylo was beginning to think that Luke somehow knew they were searching for him and Rey. He spent most of his time in meditation, reaching out with the Force, searching for any sign of his old Jedi Master. Anything to keep him from acting like an animal trapped in a cage.

He had lost track of how long he had been doing this one particular day, and just as he felt a twinge, a short burst of light, there was a knock on his door. Kylo opened his eyes, falling back into his body, and blinked.

"Kylo!" Zora sounded urgent, knocking on his door again. He got off of his knees from the floor and the door slid open as he approached. "The First Order, they sent news of a girl-"

"It's her," Kylo realized. It wasn't Luke but Rey he had felt."We're close."

Zora watched Kylo's face before she decided to finish her sentence."She's with General Organa, at a Resistance base."

"That doesn't change anything," Kylo forced out. He hadn't expected this to be easy.

"A Resistance base doesn't change anything?" She asked, looking shocked.

"You were prepared for Skywalker, but not The Resistance?" Kylo asked her and stepped out of the room into the common area.

"What is our course of action?" Zora answered with a question of herown.

"We walk in."

They had landed a fair distance from the supposed Resistance base. Under the cover of night the search party had remained undetected. Kylo stood by himself, facing the village that held the supposed secret Resistance base. There wasn't much to it, and Kylo felt entirely more confident with his plan. Nobody else was, however. The Stormtroopers were nervous, Captain Phasma was angry, and his knights thought he had gone mad, cooped up in the ship so long.

"Order your men not to attack unless I give you the command," he told the captain as she walked up to him, her twelve Stormtroopers in three straight lines behind her.

"Are we going to _ask_ the girl to come with us?" Phasma responded to him. Kylo ignored her sarcasm.

"The same for you." Instead, Kylo turned to face his six Knights of Ren, "Stay strictly defensive unless I tell you otherwise."

"You know it's a waste," Zora tried to argue with him. Instead he took a step towards the shorter woman, towering over her, and her courage sank.

"You will stay strictly defensive unless I say otherwise. Do I make myself clear?" He asked her in a low voice, made even darker by his helmet.

"Yes," Zora responded. He received a few more words of agreement from the knights, and those who were silent nodded their heads.

"Follow me," he spoke to the whole party now and strode off towards the village. The closer he got, the more he felt Rey, like a distant star burning fiery and bright. He was trying to concentrate solely on what the Force was feeding him, and wanted to know the exact moment she knew that he had come for her.

Outside the village, as the party of twenty encountered two guards. They were not expecting Kylo Ren and the group with him and the moment they were spotted, Kylo reached out and used the Force to grip around the man's neck, finding where his spine met his skull and snapping the bones there. He died in an instant as Kylo moved his attention to the second, pulling him closer until his hand was gripping the man's neck. Kylo held him high, the man's feet kicking and twitching while his mind was forced open, like a book for Kylo to read.

He found, with the man quickly dying, that his wasn't a base but rather an outpost. There was a base further off on the planet, and if they were alerted, Kylo and his company would find this mission extremely difficult. The thoughts and memories he was invading faded suddenly and Kylo was brought back to the man's face, purple with blood pouring from his nose.

"Three men," he turned to Captain Phasma as he dropped the corpse from his hand. "Patrol the village, let no one escape." He looked to one of his own knights, "Lisryk, assist them." The silent knight bowed his head slightly and followed the three Stormtroopers Phasma had sent off, drawing his rifle.

"This isn't the base, it's on a different corner of this world," Kylo then spoke to those remaining. "We'll have no trouble as long as the Resistance here is cut off." He began again, making his way into the village, walking straight towards Rey's light. There was hardly anyone awake at this hour, and the remaining sixteen were largely unseen as they approached Rey. There was a temple of sorts that Kylo stopped before and he sensed it, Rey's aura had become chaotic with panic and fear. She knew he was here.

"Have your men guard the entrance," he commanded of Phasma and they complied, forming a defensive line as Kylo entered with three of his knights, leaving Stegunn and Brieand to assist Captain Phasma.

Kylo saw her first, burning like some fiery beacon while on her knees, and her energy was twenty times more intense than when he had last faced her. At her side was his mother, both of them on their knees with their backs towards him.

"Rey," the traitor was the only one in the room facing them, desperately trying to get Rey and Leia to pay attention to the situation. "Wake up!" He whispered intensely and Kylo moved forward, his knights remaining near the entrance. Kylo saw Rey glance over her shoulder before her head snapped forward again at the sight of him. He saw his mother place a hand on Rey's thigh, trying to steady her emotion.

"Rey!" The traitor stressed before raising his blaster to Kylo. He barely flicked his wrist and the blaster flew out of his grip and was crushed mid air.

"Ben," Leia spoke before standing, leaving Rey to try and mediate by herself. Kylo could see that Rey wasn't able to in his presence.

"I'm not here for you," he told his mother, casting his gaze in her direction for the first time in almost a decade. He was surprised that Leia wasn't vengeful towards him for Han Solo's death. She still wanted her son back.

"I know why you've come... Ben," She started towards him.

"Stop," he warned her. He took a deep breath to control himself, and prevent his limbs from shaking.

She didn't heed his warning and continued forward. "Ben, you can come back," she said, her own calm breaking as she approached the son she had birthed thirty years ago.

"Stop!" He yelled at her and she was frozen mid step, reaching out to him. His voice caused Rey to flinch and look back at him once more, the traitor by her side now, weaponless and afraid.

Kylo swallowed, forcing himself into composure and his mother could do nothing but stare at him with eyes full of sorrow. "I'm not here for you," he told her, forcing his hand into a fist and pulling the consciousness out of his mother. It took a great deal of energy and once she fell to the ground, Kylo's chest was heaving.

Rey, feeling a surge of anger that dimmed her light slightly, moved for her staff, but stopped as Kylo, instead of reaching for his light saber, removed his helmet. Kylo knew she shouldn't attack him first, if she learned anything from Luke at all. He saw the confusion wash over her features as he dropped the heavy helmet at his feet.

"Draw your weapon," she told him, her hand on the staff while she readied her stance.

"I don't wish to fight you, Rey," his natural voice filling the temple.

She straightened her stance, glancing at her friend before looking back to Kylo. "I don't know where Luke is," she told him.

"I'm here for you," Kylo clarified and she was taken aback. He saw the traitor lean into Rey, about to tell her something. Kylo was running low on patience, and lifted his hand. The traitor was suddenly in the air, flipping over Kylo and landed on his back between him and the Knights of Ren.

"Zora, keep our friend occupied," Kylo said, his eyes locked with Rey's as her staff's ends produced two short blue sabers and she held it in a defensive stance.

Behind him, he heard Zora drop her helmet as well, before she removed most of her armor, shedding it as she walked towards the traitor. "With pleasure," she answered Kylo.

"Whoa, whoa, lady wait!" The traitor responded as Zora engaged him.

"She won't hurt him," Kylo reassured Rey, who's attention was torn between him and the hand to hand combat between her friend and Zora. Behind Kylo, Zora had began dancing around the traitor. She was moving fast enough to take quick, sharp jabs at his weak spots like his neck, ribs, and knees, all while dodging swings he was taking at her.

"You must have a fetish for surrounding yourself with traitors, liars and murderers," Kylo spoke to get her attention.

Rey snapped her brown, doe eyes back to him, her body tense. "What do you want?" She asked him again.

"I told you, I'm here for you," he stepped forward and she moved back.

"Why?" Rey's eyes narrowed.

"Orders,"Kylo answered her shortly, before extending a gloved hand out toward her. "I don't want to fight you."

"I'm not going with you." She was stubborn, and Kylo found himself admiring that about her. She had always been stubborn.

"Do you like being lied to?" He asked her in an attempt to persuade her. "Do you like being taught the ways of the Force by the man who left you on Jakku?"

"Wh...What?" Rey asked, her stance falling slightly at the mention of the planet.

"Don't listen to him, Rey!" The traitor huffed as Zora kept him busy, like she was a cat playing with her live meal.

"Skywalker hasn't told you?" Kylo ignored him, making Rey focus only on him once more. His face softened in sympathy for her. "I didn't recognize you before, not for certain," Kylo took another step forward, his hand still stretched out to her. "Not until you stole Anakin's lightsaber from me. In the forest onthe Star Killer Base."

"What are you talking about?" Rey spat at him. She was becoming angry... _Good_.

"He blocked your memories, even I couldn't find them," Kylo continued to agitate her with the harsh realty of why she had been abandoned. "Luke..." he paused, his face softened and hiseyes sad with his hand stretched out to her. He'd be lying to himself if he called it all a facade. "Luke killed your parents."

"No,"Rey shook her head in disbelief. "No," she repeated louder as tears fell down her face. "You're lying!"

"Don't-listen to him!" The traitor struggled, Zora having her fill of toying with him and kept him in a headlock to watch the conversation unfold between Rey and Kylo unfold.

"You know it's true! I can show you!" Kylo rose his voice. Rey knew what he was telling her wasn't a lie, but she wouldn't let herself believe him. "Let me show you what he did!"

She didn't respond in coherent words, instead she screamed and lunged at him, the blue ends of her staff barely missing his neck as he leaned back to avoid her sudden attack.

Rey came at him fast, lunging and spinning, and Kylo unclasped the heavy cape from his shoulder's, allowing it to fall to the floor as he dodged her. She wasn't using any of her training as she tried to cut Kylo down, only her rage. He ducked as her staff was again swung at his head, and for a moment he thought of grabbing for his lightsaber. Instead, as Rey spun around and came at him with another attack, Kylo grabbed onto the staff and flipped her, simultaneously turning the blades off and tossing it aside as she hit the ground. He grabbed onto her then, pulling her back up from the floor as she screamed at him, clawing at his arms.

"Let me go!" She struggled as Kylo wrapped both of his arms around her chest and held her against him, her feet barely leaving the ground.

"You need to see," Kylo told her, speaking into her hair as she fought him. He felt the Force growing around her as she suddenly remembered it, and he froze it in place, The light suddenly still as it radiated off of her, and was slowly encompassed by a blanket of thick, cool black. "Remember what he has done!"

She fought hard, however Kylo's own memories flooded her mind and she was pulled into his head. She could barely understand it, there were flashes of light, green, blue... And red. It was Luke and her father and... Kylo Ren. Younger, and he was knocked aside from the fight.

Rey could barely concentrate on Kylo's memory, she both wanted free and wanted to see the truth for herself. Suddenly she screamed, as if seeing it before her, the father she barely standing over a young Ben Solo before Luke's green lightsaber was thrust through his back. She watched the glowing blade push through her father's chest before it was brought up and her father was half way cut in two.

"Stop!" She screamed, closing her eyes but the image was still there. "Stop it!" Her screams were drowned out by her mother's ear piercing wails as she ran at Luke. The teenage Ben Solo got to him first, rounding on Rey's mother and cutting the red lightsaber from her grip before she could hurt his master. Everything turned into a blur before melting away to the Jedi and his Padawan standing above her parent's corpses.

"He left you on Jakku," Kylo forced, dropping to his knees with Rey still held against him. "I didn't want to," he continued, feeding her images of the two together. A fourteen year old Ben Solo and a five year old Rey. "I know you remember what I told you."

Rey did, she remembered. It was her own memory now, being pulled away by Unkar Plutt. "Stay here, I'll come back for you," she heard, and recognized, Kylo's voice. "I'll comeback sweetheart. I promise."

Kylo finally let go of Rey and she scurried away from him. "Come with me," he told her, staying on his knees as he watched her cry. She shook her head. "Come with me now!" He tried encouraging her. "I've kept that promise, now come with me!" He stood and offered his hand to her again.

Rey looked up to him from the ground, now silent, looking into Kylo's dark eyes. He was distracted as she reached up, and he believed that she was finally agreeing, until her staff was called back to her open hand and she hit him with a furious intensity behind his knees, knocking him to the ground. She was above him quickly, the blue sabers on her staff shooting out with a crack and one end was close enough to Kylo's neck he felt his skin beginning to burn.

The Knights of Ren were ready, and charged Rey in an instant, held up in confusion when Kylo stopped them. "NO!" He yelled, watching Rey's hands shake as she stared down at him, her foot heavy on his sternum. "I don't want to fight you," he told her, "I never have, but we both know I can take what I want." There was a distraction outside, sounds of fighting, and Kylo took the opportunity to pull out his own lightsaber and force Rey's weapon away from him, jumping up from the ground with ease.

"Find out what's happening," he commanded his knights and they left him with Rey, the unconscious traitor and his unconscious mother.

"The Resistance knows you're here," Rey warned him, taking up a fighting stance once again with her saberstaff. Kylo rolled his shoulders back, breathing in as he heard the fight rage on outside.

"The faster we leave, the less death there will be," Kylo warned her, beginning to circle her, giving her one last chance. "Come with me now and save your friends."

"No,"she said and made the same mistake of attacking him first. Kylo easily thwarted her and she ended up on the ground before him and the entrance.

"You can't fight me this time," Kylo warned her, as Rey got back up to her feet. She studied him for a moment before she turned around and ran out of the temple. Kylo followed her, once he was outside he leaped onto the air, jumping over Rey, and landed in front of her. He blocked one of her blows immediately before returning it,one after the other. Each time he brought his lightsaber down harder, and it knocked Rey back until she was once more on the ground. He used the Force to steal her weapon away, catching it in his left hand.

She stared up at him in shock, out of breath from the short fight and Kylo used his free energy then to try and cease the fighting around him. The Resistance indeed had been notified of his company's presence. They needed to leave before it got out of hand. Above him,two X-Wing fighters flew past the outpost. Kylo focused and used one's firepower against itself, freezing the cannon shots and sending them back at the craft, causing an explosion that briefly lit up the village. Rey screamed at him to stop before realizing the carnage around her, seeing what Captain Phasma, the Stormtroopers, and the Knights of Ren were doing to the village.

With the second X-Wing, Kylo seized the engine and puled the ship down into the village. He was surprised when the X-Wing didn't erupt into flames, and surprised further as Ray got up and sprinted to the wreckage, screaming, "Poe!" Kylo followed her again, knowing more Resistance fighters were mere moments away from arriving. He sheathed his lightsaber hilt on his waist before pulling the strap on Rey's saberstaff over his shoulders.

Rey ran straight to the wreckage and pulled the pilot out of the cockpit, a small orange BB astromech unit dropping out of the wreck simultaneously. Seeing Rey on the ground with the man she had pulled free brought up a strange feeling in Kylo, something related to jealousy and it confused him.

As Kylo approached, Rey moved to pull Poe's blaster from his side. Kylo raised his left hand and Rey expected to be frozen or pushed back, instead she was shocked by Poe gasping, coming back to consciousness while he laid on the ground and in her lap. Rey looked from the pilot, that Kylo now recognized as he moved closer, to Kylo with shock.

"What are you doing?" She asked him quietly, nearly drowned out by the chaos around them.

"Come with me," Kylo asked her one last time, his hand still raised and nearly shaking with power as he tried to heal Poe Dameron, a man he had once tortured.

"Rey," Poe gasped from the ground, drawing her attention before she stood up, "Where's Finn?" A few feet away, the droid beeped at Rey in concern, hiding from Kylo behind some wreckage.

"I can't save them all," Kylo told her, multitasking as he focused on her, "but you can end this now."

"Rey?" Poe gasped from the ground and Kylo stopped him from moving, keeping him still.

Kylo rose his right hand, in one last offer to Rey and, hesitant, she stepped towards him. Kylo breathed out in a sigh of relief before he moved forward, his hand now towards her head and she was gone in an instant, falling. Kylo caught Rey, holding her in both his arms and walked away from a gravely injured, but alive, Poe.

"Rey!"He choked at Kylo's back.

"Gather my effects," Kylo told one of his knights as he passed, "We're leaving, now!"

He stopped for nothing on his way back to his shuttle, his knights gathering first before Phasma and her Stormtroopers came. He had lost four of them, and none of his knights. He counted everyone as they arrived and was last to board his ship as Zora arrived with his cape and helmet.

"She chose to come with you?" Kylo heard her ask as he stepped onto the platform.

"She made her choice, and I didn't give her the option to change her mind," Kylo responded, sensing a change before he was fully on the ship. Zora felt it as well, although she was hardly as Force sensitive as he, and they turned around.

A figure was standing in the distance, cloaked in the darkness of night and Kylo wasn't sure who it was at first, feeling for something familiar from the figure. "Lets leave," Kylo said, realizing who was standing outside the ship.

"Who is that?" Zora asked, almost leaving the shuttle before Kylo scolded her.

"We are leaving, _now_ ," he said, hoping she wouldn't realize Luke Skywalker was outside. He hadn't felt him arrive, he hadn't sensed him at all and it was worrisome. Even more so if his knights find out. However the night had already taken much away from him and he couldn't fight his old master if he wanted.


	3. Chapter 3

Chapter Three

 _And there's nothing that I can do_ _e_ _xcept bury my love for you_

"I believe she's awake," Zora said and Kylo Ren opened his eyes. He had locked Rey in his private room, thus forcing himself into the common area of the ship. He had been trying to meditate, but his mind was always pulled back to the girl.

"You aren't sure?" Kylo asked, his helmet off, along with hers.

"She's crying, she may be asleep still," Zora informed, kneeling next to him on the floor.

"She's skilled with mind tricks," Kylo informed not just her, but the five other knights with him in the common room, "be wary of her." Kylo stood and left Zora on the floor, moving to his private room. He stood outside the door and heard the same thing Zora had. Soft sobbing was pouring from the room Kylo felt that she was awake, he could sense it, however he paused before entering the room. He was hesitating, he didn't know what to say to her or what to do if he entered the room.

Rey hadn't sensed him so he had time, standing outside the room with one of his hands on the door, thinking and bathing in the light surrounding her. He caught himself and backed away from the door, asking himself what he was doing. Rey was a prisoner, not his but Snoke's. She wasn't the little girl his former self remembered, the little girl he was forced to leave on that trash pile of a planet, the little girl he had promised to come back for.

Kylo wasn't that same boy she had grown overly fond of and would follow everywhere. Ben Solo was gone, and never coming back, he had made sure of that. He kept that in mind and felt better about the situation as he moved towards the door, opening it and stepping inside.

Rey had been curled up on his bed, her knees pulled to her chest. She sat up quickly and backed into the corner that met with the end of his bed. The doors closed behind Kylo, sliding shut quickly, and the lights were low in the room.

"Where are we?" She asked with her jaw quivering, staring at him like he was some sort of predator.

"We are en route to the Finalizer," Kylo answered her, afterwords moving to sit across the room from her in a cushioned armchair. "We should arrive within a day."

"And then what?" She asked him.

He was unsure of Snoke's plans for her. Perhaps she would be trained under himself as another knight? "I'll take you to the Supreme Leader, and he will decide."

"Snoke," she said. It wasn't a question but a statement, "You are taking me to Snoke."

"Yes," Kylo answered her anyways, confirming her statement.

"Is he going to kill me?"

 _Possibly_. "No," he answered instead. "You're valuable," Kylo continued, trying to convince himself as well. Why did he care? Kylo Ren shouldn't care what Snoke did with her, yet her question brought up a bothersome concern.

Rey shook her head and rested it on her knees. "I'm so confused, Ben."

Kylo tensed, his fists tightening and the leather gloves creaking under the pressure. Rey noticed, lifting her head to stare at his balled fists and then to his scarred face and tight jaw.

"Don't use that name," he warned her and watched her big eyes widen. "It won't be tolerated by the First Order."

Her eyebrows slowly knit together and she lowered her mouth to her knees, silent. Kylo sat in her silence, the tense in his body fading away as he waited for her to speak again. She was silent for a long while and Kylo could feel tendrils of the darkness within himself entwining with her rays of light with an odd sensation. He closed his eyes and breathed in to try and rid himself of the feeling, however he vaguely remembered this from the girl before. When he had first met her, and when he had attempted to interrogate her he had this same sensation. He opened his eyes again and saw Rey reacting to the feeling with shock. She didn't remember, she didn't understand it.

Kylo stood suddenly, feeling a pull from the dark side to the light and he was uncomfortable with it. Rey lifted her head and watched him make his way quickly to the door and Kylo was suddenly overcome with her loneliness. He stopped in front of the doorway and turned to look back at her.

She was watching him, and looked to be simply upset that she would be alone again. Kylo swallowed, contemplating what to say to her if anything. "Do you need anything?" He asked her, deciding still, to escape the situation all together.

She slowly shook her head "no" and Kylo left the room, feeling immediate relief as he fled from the light..

Rey felt the shuttle landing and she couldn't deny that she was scared. What had she done? Was she foolish to trust Kylo Ren? She had tried, desperately searching her mind, to find any recollection of him. She had a terrible feeling that the memories Kylo had shared with her, no, the ones he forced onto her, were false. They were fabricated somehow.

And if so, what was that feeling, that connection? She had felt it the first time they met, when he was trying to pry into her mind, and even when they had been dueling in the forest of the Star Killer Base. And it was coming back suddenly. Rey stopped pacing around the room she was being kept in and stood still in the center, facing the door. It opened as she anticipated, however a woman stepped inside instead of Kylo Ren. The same woman who had fought Finn, Rey recognized her by her ruthless expression and braided hair. She was shocked before Kylo followed her in, another knight behind him.

He was the only one with his helmet on, and Rey was entirely more nervous.

"Come with me," he spoke in the low, mechanical voice that made her skin crawl. She didn't understand herself, why had she come with him?

Kylo sensed her hesitation and reached up to remove his helmet, a quiet hiss emitting as his mouthpiece moved up, allowing his head to slip out. "Rey," he told her, stepping forward with his helmet under his left arm, while he extended his right hand to her. "Breathe in, feel the Force. Focus," he told her and she did immediately as he told her. "Don't feel fear, there's nothing to be afraid of." He was lying to her, however she couldn't tell. The trust she suddenly had for his face alone was astounding.

"Come with me," he said again, his hand still outstretched. She took in another deep breath and took his hand. He ignored his two knights, Zora and Lisryk, as they glanced questioningly at each other, before following him and Rey out of the shuttle.

Kylo held her hand until they neared the exit before letting go and replacing his helmet on his head. "Look calm, and keep breathing," he instructed her and they left the shuttle by each other's sides, followed by the Knights of Ren.

The calm Rey had found was suddenly breaking as she noticed the fields of Stormtroopers awaiting them, and General Hux near the shuttle's ramp, his arms behind his back and his eyes wild with anger. Rey's strides faltered as she saw him and Kylo's hand moved to the small of her back, pressed flat and easily spanning it's width from palm to fingertips.

"Have you lost your mind?" The man asked as he saw Rey. "She's not shackled or restrained!" He seethed through his clenched teeth.

"She's not a prisoner," Kylo told him, walking up to the man, closing the space between them until it held a tension that could be cut with a knife. She could feel a disturbance in the Force and realized that she was using Kylo, not herself to steady her nerves.

"She was responsible for the destruction of Star Killer Base," the general told Kylo Ren, "and those new scars of yours. She should have cut your head off and instead you stroll in with her by your side-" He stopped speaking as Kylo griped his free hand into a tight fist and Rey say the man before her fighting against his own silence.

"You give her too much credit," Kylo told him, holding his fist a moment longer before letting the man free, his pale skin beginning to redden as he was held by Kylo's will.

He didn't respond, instead he looked behind Kylo to the Knights of Ren, and then to Captain Phasma who had walked up and stood beside Rey at that moment. "Sir," she greeted him and Rey looked to her as well, noting that she was taller than Kylo in her armor. Rey closed her eyes and breathed in deep again, searching herself for calm.

"We'll debrief soon," General Hux responded to her before turning on his heel and walking away. Kylo pressed his hand into Rey's back, urging her forward and the knight's followed them. Kylo kept his hand on her back as he walked at a brisk pace, following Hux. Rey kept pace, feeling like she had to jog to keep up with Kylo's long strides.

They wound their way through the giant star destroyer, the layout vaguely familiar to Rey from the one crashed on Jakku. They ended their journey in a large room shrouded in darkness. The whole ship was cold to Rey, who's arms and shins were exposed, the rest of her body covered in thin gray fabric meant for the arid planet she had been on. This room however, left Rey's hair standing on end as her flesh erupted in goose bumps. Kylo still ushered her forward to the middle of the dark room before everyone around her dropped to their knees, a massive hologram flickering to life before her.

Rey gasped at the deformed figure towering over her, his face scared and decrepit like a corpse, and fell to her knees in shock, between Kylo and General Hux. The massive hologram stood from his chair and leaned down, staring at her, and Rey suddenly felt hot tears contrast the chill she felt on her face.

"The scavenger," the voice above her growled, and Rey felt the sudden urge to run. "You've brought her to me willingly." Kylo looked up to Supreme Leader Snoke before he rose to his feet, along with General Hux. The knights, however remained on their knees and Rey did as well, afraid to stand. "Kylo Ren, you surprise me."

"I've done what you asked," Kylo replied simply, his voice reverberating off of the silence after Snoke's words. The hologram moved to sit back in his stone throne.

"Granddaughter of the man your parents wanted you to be," Snoke pondered, "Born into a family of Force Sensitive and powerful, Mandalore royalty in her lineage. How did you convince her to come?"

Rey, listening on the ground, grew as confused as she was frightened. Luke had never talked about her family. She wasn't even sure he knew about them until Kylo revealed the truth to her. The thought of Luke, however, stung at her mind and she closed her eyes, willing her thoughts to cease and stop racing in circles.

"I've shown her that we have a common enemy," Kylo answered him, "In Luke Skywalker."

"Cunning," Snoke approved, before looking to Hux. "The First Order is quickly recovering from our loss. Set course for my location, General. Bring her to me," he requested again and Rey dared to open her eyes, looking up to Snoke.

"Yes, Supreme Leader," Hux agreed and the hologram flickered out. The knights rose, leaving Rey on the ground alone. Kylo looked down to her, and again offered a hand to help her up. She accepted the help, still frightened and Kylo walked by her side, out of the wretched room.

"I had a cell prepared for her," Hux began as they started down the hallways once more. "I'm assuming it would be ill fitting now." Kylo didn't answer him. "I'll have another room ready for her shorty." He left them quickly and Kylo stopped Rey so he could dismiss his knights. Only the woman stayed with Kylo and Rey.

Rey eyed her, still shaking from the cold, before Kylo caught her off guard by unclasping his cape and placing it around Rey's shoulders. The heavy fabric was already warm from Kylo, and weighed her shoulder's down, the fabric pooling on the floor at her feet. The knight, though her face was covered, looked shocked at what Kylo had done. "Take her back to my quarters," Kylo told her and she looked back to him with a cocked head, but didn't respond to him. "Watch her until I return."

Kylo didn't say anything to Rey before he followed the same path that General Hux had taken.


	4. Chapter 4

Chapter Four

 _Nothing can breathe in the space_ _c_ _older than the darkest sea_ _..._

There was near silence around him as he sat in the dark, next to the bed Poe was on. Finn had his feet propped up on the edge of the bed as he tried to relax into his own chair. He had been by Poe's side since he had woken up in the temple. He had been living in his own nightmare ever since. Poe _should_ be dead and Rey was gone, again.

Any of the remaining survivors pieced together a horrific tale of Kylo Ren pulling X-wings out of the sky and carrying Rey off into the night. The last time Finn had seen Rey, Kylo Ren had been trying to turn her against Luke.

Finn moved to rub is sore eyes. He hadn't been able to sleep since that night. Not with Poe on his deathbed and not with Rey gone and the Resistance hardly caring. Finn sighed to himself, shifting in his seat as he willed his thoughts to stop for a moment so he could have some peace. Instead, he felt something ice-cold fall onto the bare skin of his ankle and he jumped up, yanking his feet off of Poe's bed.

"Hey," he heard the man before him speak softly and Finn wasn't sure if he had imagined it. He quickly reached for a light by Poe's bed and dimly illuminated the room with a soft blue glow.

Finn was able to see clearly, Poe's cut and bruised face, his brown eyes glossed over with blue reflections of the light. "Hey," Finn answered immediately, leaning forward and taking Poe's freezing hand into both of his own.

"Where am I?" Poe asked, he looked confused.

"You're in the infirmary... You aren't supposed to be talking," Finn answered him, the shock still present and stunting Finn's speech.

"Well that sounds like me then," Poe smiled, attempting to relieve some of Finn's shock.

Finn smiled brightly back after a moment, "Dirty Rebel," Finn teased him, feeling somewhat back to normal for a fleeting moment."You're always doing what you aren't supposed- no, no, don't!" Poe had moved to sit up and fell back onto his bed as an overwhelming and white hot pain washed over him.

"What happened?" Poe asked through a clenched jaw as he tried to relax and ease the pain he felt, but it was all over and partly inescapable in that moment.

"I'll go get the-" Finn started as he jumped out of his chair.

"No," Poe stopped him, finally feeling the pain fade as he laid flat on his back. "Stay here with me a while." Finn sat back down and grabbed up Poe's hand once more with his own, sitting on the edge of his chair to be closer to his lover. "Tell me what happened."

"Your X-Wing was pulled out of the sky. You were coming to try and fend off the First Order that had shown up."

"I was shot down?" Poe asked, not sure how that would have been possible.

"No, you were pulled out of the sky," Finn answered and Poe looked from the ceiling to Finn with confusion. "Kylo Ren pulled your X-Wing down onto the village."

A spark in Poe's mind brought back a violent memory of laying on the ground in searing hot pain and looking up to the man, his hand outstretched and forcing Poe's body to continue living. He realized that Finn was right, he shouldn't be talking. He should be _dead_.

"What about Rey?" Poe asked, his memory catching up with him.

"She's gone," Finn answered him.

"She left with Kylo," Poe clarified.

"He came for her, yeah."

"No, she left with him," Poe remembered. " _I can't save them all but you can end this now_ ," Poe quoted Kylo, remembering the words as if they were seared into his brain. "Rey left with Kylo to stop the assault," he squeezed Finn's hand. "How many people died?"

"From the Resistance, only one," Finn answered and Poe's eyes asked for more, knowing that Finn was holding back. "Almost thirty from the village," Finn finally answered with sorrow filling his voice.

Poe was shocked now, he wasn't even sure that thirty people had lived in that small village. "Damnit," was all he could muster in response. That sort of failure was humiliating and infuriating all at once. Kylo didn't even give him and the other pilot a chance to defend those people. "She left to save us. Do you think they wanted her dead?"

"Kylo was adamant on not fighting Rey," Finn recalled. "I doubt she's dead... But why would they want her?"

"I don't know."

"There," Rey said to herself. She was seated in her own quarters at a table, a fleece blanket wrapped around her body. A pile of electronics, lights, and more junk she had taken from a control panel in her room she couldn't see a purpose for was laid out before her on the table top. She had fidgeted and tinkered and after countless hours trying to keep herself occupied, Rey had finally made something out of the wires and lights. Looking above her to the flat black ceiling she had a small star system above her, projecting from the contraption. One sun, two planets, one larger than the other and it had two moons. She spun a gear and watched the planet spin around the star and felt immediately sad.

Rey missed Jakku fiercely. She missed scavenging and exploring and the freedom of it all. Rey missed that junkyard of a planet she had been dumped on when she was a child, by the man she had trusted wholeheartedly without question. The same man who murdered her parents. Rey looked from the ceiling to the contraption, spinning delicately before slowing to a stop before her on the table.

A flash of hatred overcame her and she suddenly wanted to toss it off of the table. Instead she moved her chair back from the table, shocked at the feeling and how suddenly it had come. It was something she had never felt before as far as she could remember. She refused to act on it, suddenly afraid if this was the life she would have to live now, giving into these poisonous emotions and feeding into rage and fear.

Rey pulled her feet onto the chair she was on, hugging her knees to her chest and burying her face to cry, hiding from everything beneath her blanket.

Kylo Ren was sat in front of Darth Vader's burned helmet, silent, eyes closed, trying desperately to focus. Rey had been on the Finalizer with him less than one day. He figured he should have known Rey would be a distraction for him, she was a terrible distraction while they were kept on his shuttle.

Kylo breathed in, deep, bringing his mind out of the endless spiral of thoughts. He was determined not to let Rey distract him. He found it difficult to think however, with her light constantly bombarding him and beckoning him towards her.

"Grandfather," Kylo opened his eyes, realizing his mind had already strayed back to Rey. "Help me," he continued, his plea falling around Vader's helmet, "The light... It's relentless." Kylo brought a hand up to his forehead and rubbed, wanting the thoughts out of his head.

"I will not succumb," he said after a long moment's silence. He looked back to the helmet before him. "I can be stronger than you were."

He closed his eyes once again, feeling empowered once more, however Rey slowly crept back. Kylo was trying to figure out what he could do, how to gain the will power to resist her when there was a change. Something dark reached out and wrapped around him suddenly. Kylo was so shocked he stood up form his seat and drew his lightsaber, the red blade cracking and lighting the room with a red glow.

Kylo focused, however the rage he had felt was gone as quickly as it came. Willingly this time, he tried to sense Rey and found everything was... Sad. Normal, but sad. The chaotic red saber and cross guard disappeared, leaving only a hilt in Kylo's hand. He replaced it on his waist and was still for a moment, fighting with his mind. He was torn, curious, and concerned.

Kylo couldn't resist the pull. He tried convincing himself that it didn't mater. Eventually that light would fade, become perverted by darkness. What he told himself in reassurance instead made him feel ill. He had left his room in a rush, no cape, no helmet, and made his way as quick as possible to Rey's quarters.

Outside the room, the hallway was littered with Stormtroopers, spaced along the walls of the corridor every few feet. In front of Rey's door, there were four more, along with two of his Knights of Ren, Brieand and Anda. They both corrected their posture immediately and lowered their heads to him, in obvious shock that he had arrived.

"What is all this?" Kylo asked, he hadn't meant to but he sounded angry, motioning to the thirty or so Stormtroopers lining the hallway and stationed outside Rey's quarters.

"Extra security," Brieand answered him, "For Hux's peace of mind."

"She's not a nexu," Kylo kept his face emotionless, "What is she doing?"

"Sleeping, as far as we can tell," Anda answered this time. "She's been quiet." Kylo wasn't going to respond, still feeling the unforgiving pull and moved to enter the room. "She dismantled a control board, meant for sanitation and air control. We aren't sure why. No one wants to question her," Anda continued before Kylo opened her door.

"She dismantled a control board...?" Kylo asked him, speaking slowly. "Is it something that needs attention?"

"No, not immediately."

Kylo looked from Anda, to Brieand, to the four Stormtroopers, trying to feel for their thoughts. It was certainly an "off" piece of news. He didn't say anything more before entering Rey's quarters, the door sliding closed behind him.

He saw Rey immediately, slumped over in a chair, curled into a ball and held beneath a blanket as she breathed in and out shallowly. Before her on a table was some sort of contraption, with brightly shining lights situated on a disk made from a gear. Kylo's eyebrows furrowed in confusion until he looked at the ceiling above her, noticing she had made a crude display of a small star system. He was shocked then, that the girl had the ingenuity to create something like that out of a control board for sanitation and air.

After examining the contraption and it's display from afar he moved towards the table silently, and sat across from Rey in another chair. He wasn't sure, but the lights looked an awful lot like the tiny Jakku system.

Across from him, Rey took a deep breath in and brought Kylo's attention back to her. She was awake now, and he couldn't help but notice her eyes, red and raw from crying.

"Fascinating," he looked back at the ceiling as he gently spun the disk, causing the lights above him to start a slow orbit. He tried to ignore the fact that she had been crying. It was a hard task, with Rey now staring at his scarred face.

Rey and Kylo were silent for a while, with the mechanism between them continuing on a steady spin. She could feel the energy coming from him, oddly warm on this freezing ship, the Force slowly moving the lights in a constant circle. "We're you coming back?" Rey asked him in their silence, her knees still pulled to her chest and her eyes locked on the lights above her.

Kylo looked down to her before answering. "I had every intention of keeping that promise while I was a boy."

Rey shut her eyes, trying to keep herself from crying again. She had never cried so much in front of anyone in her life and it was embarrassing. Even then, she still felt like she had people who cared, now she just had... Him.

"What did he mean?" She asked him, meaning Snoke, "When he mentioned Mandalore and the man you were named after?"

Kylo kept his dark eyes on her, his gaze growing intense. "Snoke was talking about Obi Wan Kenobi, the Jedi Master who trained Darth Vader." Rey looked away from Kylo, resting her chin on her knees as her eyes scanned the floor of the room. "Before the Clone Wars, Kenobi had an affair with a Mandalorian Duchess, Satine Kryze. In short, she had a child in secret, and passed him off as her nephew. That man was your father."

"Why would my father want to kill you and Luke?" Rey couldn't stop herself from asking him.

"Being a Jedi in those times, it was like walking around with a nose around your neck in some parts of the galaxy. I'm sure you've witnessed it to an extent while training with him."

"I've only ever stayed at Rebel bases since..." Rey began, and stopped herself, trailing off. "Why don't I remember them?"

Kylo didn't answer her, only watching as her eyes glazed over and her bottom lip quivered.

"I can't remember," she drew in a shaky breath, closing her eyes. "I don't remember anything. I don't remember you."

"I couldn't find the memories either. I don't know what Skywalker has done to you," Kylo admitted and watched her eyes open and lock with his, that odd and powerful feeling flowing between them freely. He stood from his seat then, as she remained silent to him, and moved to crouch before her.

She let her legs fall slowly to the floor before him and stared at him with a mixture of sadness, confusion, and fear. "Concentrate," he said, gauging her reaction. She didn't flinch as he moved to his knees and reached out to her, his fingers sliding into her hair and resting his palm on the side of her head, to anyone else it would look like he was trying to comfort her.

Rey breathed in, understanding and braced herself for a pain that never came. "Focus," Kylo encouraged her as he closed his eyes and she did the same, unsure of what to focus on.

She felt the invasion then, she felt him inside her head and fought the overwhelming urge to push him out. "Relax," she heard, but knew that Kylo had been silent. She did as she was told and relaxed her tense body and surrendered her mind to him.


	5. Chapter 5

Chapter Five

 _I have dreams about the days driving through your sunset breeze_ _..._

They were on the ground, kneeling before each other. Eyes closed and minds wide open. Kylo had been dissecting her memories one by one while searching for cracks in the wall Luke had laid. He had found things Rey had forgotten, but not himself. Half of him was relieved, knowing that if he couldn't find anything, Rey wouldn't be able to either. The other half was irked, however. It bothered him that he couldn't figure out the maze in Rey's head.

Rey had pulled away suddenly, opening her eyes and leaning back. Kylo opened his eyes as well, staring at the sad look across her face as he had found a memory of the traitor Stormtrooper that had been dubbed Finn.

"There hasn't been any altercations with the Resistance, since you've been here," Kylo told her, wondering if it would make her feel better. Rey chewed on her bottom lip, but didn't show the sign of relief he was looking for. With that failed attempt, Kylo held out his hand, beckoning her back to him.

"We don't find anything," Rey declined him, before standing up and pacing around her room, leaving Kylo on the ground. "We _never_ find anything."

"You're bored," he sensed, watching her pace and recognizing the stance she had.

"I'm tired of this," she crossed her arms tightly. She was no longer wearing her original attire, but the black fabric under armor of the Stormtroopers and one of Zora's old hooded cloaks, since there was a severe lack of attire for women Rey's size on the star destroyer.

"Would you rather train with me?" Kylo asked her. She looked unenthused but her curiosity was significantly raised. Kylo stood from the floor and Rey stopped pacing.

"Have you practiced your mind tricks with Skywalker?" Kylo asked her, and watched Rey hesitate before nodding. "Show me," Kylo insisted and lead Rey to the door of her room, walking out with her.

"You will lower your blasters," Rey said quickly as they were noticed by the Stormtroopers, who drew upon her quickly as they spotted her. Despite the rushed command, they all listened to her.

Zora, who was lounging outside Rey's room with Brieand, cocked her head to the side in a silent question. Kylo glanced from Zora to Rey as he stood next to her, tall and straight. She was looking to him as well with a silent question of her own.

"Continue," Kylo's eyebrows rose slightly, expecting Rey to get rid of the Stormtroopers somehow.

"And you will spin in a circle," Rey added as a joke, instead and the hallway filled with the shuffling and clacking of the Stormtrooper's armor as they slowly spun around in a full circle. "Twice."

The smile Kylo was suppressing cracked the surface of his placid expression. It was the first time Rey had ever seen such a thing.

"Impressive," Zora stretched as she got up from her seat. She didn't mean the complement to befall what Rey had done to the Stormtroopers, but what she had done to Kylo's mouth.

Rey looked to Kylo one last time before giving the order she should have originally, "You are all relieved of your duties."

"We are all relieved of our duties," they chanted monotonously and began walking down the hall in separate directions.

"Indefinitely," Rey added, raising her voice over the shuffling of their boots.

"Indefinitely," they repeated back to her.

"So, what is this?" Zora waited to ask Kylo, circling around Rey to stand in the abandoned hallway.

"We're going to teach her how to fight," Kylo responded, the smile long gone from his face. Zora didn't respond verbally, with her hand planted on her waist, getting a good look at Rey in her cloak. "Brieand, fetch the other Knights of Ren, meet us in storage H-17."

"Storage, huh?" The corner of Zora's mouth rose in a smirk. Storage would definitely give them privacy, but it was a hellish place to train.

* * *

"Fight me," Zora purred, in a low stance with a wooden staff held in her hands. They had been at it nearly an hour and Rey looked exhausted, not to mention frozen to her core. Zora was freezing as well, in her thin pants and partially mesh vest, having abandoned her cloak and any other over clothes earlier so she could be lighter on her bare feet. Rey had done the same with her cloak after Zora repeatedly caught the hem and threw her down to the icy floor.

Rey was hesitant, her own wooden staff held in her hands, an end pointed at Zora. She realized that she much preferred Kylo Ren's mind probing to this. Rey drew in a deep breath, half expecting to watch it leave her mouth in a visible white vapor before she lunged forward, just enough to make Zora believe she was trying to attack. As Rey hoped, Zora parried and Rey instead swung her staff around and tried to hit the back of her knee to knock her off balance.

"Faster!" Kylo scolded Rey before she was able to realize that Zora had jumped over her staff. She fell to the ground and scurried away before Zora could bring her staff up under Rey's chin.

"I told you to fight me," Zora hissed and Rey gained some distance and stood back up. She couldn't seem to find the will or strength to fight her. Rey had no choice as Zora tapped into her seemingly endless source of energy and fury and attacked Rey, moving in confusing blurs and the loud cracks the two pieces of wood made shocked Rey's ears until it was all she heard.

An intense, burning pain rushed through her body as Zora spun quickly and whipped Rey across the back of her shoulders with her wooden staff, causing her skin to crack almost as loudly as the two staffs were previously. Rey screamed and fell onto her hands and knees, tears immediately stinging at her eyes.

"Get up!" Zora demanded as Kylo Ren made his way over to Rey.

"Feel it, the pain," he knelt beside Rey as she panted before his gloved hand pressed down hard on her wound. Rey screamed again and fell away from him, feeling a small relief from the pain as his hand fell away. "Feed off of it, let it power you and get up!" He yelled the last few words at her. "You're already dead, Zora would have killed you!"

Rey used her wooden staff to stand back up, the movement of her arms and shoulders sending waves of pain through her back. As she balanced on her feet and the staff, she watched one of Kylo's knights toss him his own wooden staff and Rey felt genuine fear, until she saw him attack Zora.

Rey knew he wasn't helping her, however she stood and watched the two fight for a moment, like they were dancing. That moment was all it took for Rey. The longest she had lasted against Zora was half a minute and she had spent most of that time trying to avoid her attacks and laying on the ground. Watching her fight Kylo, Rey realized a few of her weaknesses.

Rey moved forward before the fight was brought to her and clipped Zora in the back of her knee, successfully this time, before turning and forcing her to the ground with the opposite end of her staff. She completed the turn and caught a heavy swing from Kylo, the sound their wooden staffs made had Rey thinking they had snapped in half.

She quickly glanced to the end of her staff to make sure that the wood had held, feeling the strain renewing the searing pain in her shoulders, before looking back into Kylo's intense eyes.

"Good," he complimented her before moving to strike her in the side of her ribs. Rey tried to dodge but he still managed to strike her before Zora took half of his attention away. Rey screamed in pain again but wouldn't allow herself to fall down.

Trying to focus and ignore the pain, she quickly joined the skirmish. She kept up, but wasn't fast enough for either of them, continually getting hit enough to ignite her skin but never getting knocked down.

"You're leaving your back open!" She could hear the other knights yell to her in her growing frustration.

"Watch his feet!"

"On your right!"

Rey was always milliseconds too slow before Kylo or Zora would clip her with their staffs, forming bruises all over her skin and causing her muscles and joints to cry out in a fiery agony. Instead of growing tired, however, Rey felt her frustration growing and she was quickly becoming angry.

One final hit from Zora sent her over the the edge she was teetering on. The staff hitting her nearly as hard as before, square in the back of her shoulders, where her original wound was.

Rey clenched her jaw and thrust the blunt end of her staff, as hard as she could, square into Kylo's chest. He felt it hit him nearly as hard as the sudden wave of darkness flowing from her, encasing him and suffocating him as he landed hard on his back, his staff knocked from his grip.

Rey had her left hand out, palm facing Zora as she was thrown violently away from her, slamming against the far wall in the room and landing on her stomach, motionless.

In another moment, the silence settling in around the storage bay, Rey had returned back to normal, shining like a bright star. She dropped her staff and moved to help Zora, before turning and looking back to Kylo, who was still on the ground. She immediately felt remorse for what she had done to them both and the scavenger girl inside of her wanted to cry, like she had done something terrible.

Rey looked away from Kylo on the ground, who had only looked back in shock at what she had done, before she started for Zora again. Instead, she was met with General Hux marching in with a small army of Stormtroopers. Rey stopped dead, the feeling of something terrible multiplying as the Knights of Ren, who were watching the fight, stood quickly from their seats on boxes and metal shelving.

Kylo was standing in a second, striding over to Hux as if he were never knocked down, the pain he felt in his chest was well hidden by the anger on his face. However, it was nothing compared to the murderous look the general had as he observed what Rey had done to Zora, who still had not moved from the ground.

"What is this," Hux asked, venom seeping out of his words, "Kylo Ren?"

Kylo had strode right up to him, staring barely down at the man. "Don't play yourself an idiot," he answered with his own sneer, "We're training."

Rey watched the two for a moment, before testing the Stormtroopers and rushing off to Zora. As Rey reached her she opened her light green eyes. "I'm sorry," Rey bent down to help the woman up, despite the persistent pain she felt.

"It doesn't look like she needs the training," Hux continued bickering with Kylo. "Get her back in her room, the next time I see her out of it I'll shackle her and throw her in a cell!" He then threatened, while Rey helped Zora back to her feet. The woman allowed Rey to give her support and their arms remained around each other.

Rey kept her eyes on Kylo, and realized he looked like he was about to explode, his face growing a complete shade red. He stepped back from General Hux suddenly, pulling the hilt of his lightsaber off of his belt and turning with a roar, his chaotic lightsaber slicing through the feet of a metal shelf and the whole thing toppled over, causing a sudden mess.

Rey cringed while Zora next to her looked unfazed, as did the rest of the knights, while Kylo attacked the items in the storage unit. Hux and the Stormtroopers were unable to do anything but watch on.

"Rey!" He yelled for her at the climax of his rage and the blade of his lightsaber suddenly vanished. He walked in heavy and quick strides out of the storage bay, his shoulder clipping Hux's before he carved a path easily through the orderly Stormtroopers. The Knights of Ren followed his lead, say for half walking into Hux. Rey reached up quickly, both her cloak and Zora's clothes flying to her hand, before she followed as quickly as she could.

"Clean this up!" Rey heard the general order the Stormtroopers as she left the storage bay, feeling a sudden increase in temperature as she entered the hallways of the Finalizer, Zora by her side.

"Rey!" Kylo called for her again. One of the knights helped support Zora, Rey leaving her clothing and armor with her before having to run in order to catch up with how fast Kylo was walking.

"You did good," he complimented her, the anger still resonating from him despite it quickly fading. "You need to not hold yourself back." He glanced at her as he walked, Rey struggling to pull her cloak on for a much awaited relief from the cold air in the Finalizer, despite the hallways being warmer than the storage bay, it was still freezing to her.

"We'll do this again tomorrow," he continued and Rey almost tripped as she jogged next to him.

"Gen-" she stammered, barely able to get the first syllable of her protest out of her mouth before Kylo finally stopped walking, his rage depleted. He reached out and moved a few stray strands of Rey's brunette hair behind her ear. He left the palm of his hand against her cheek, and the warmth was a stark contrast to the cold air.

Rey felt her breath catch in her throat for a reason completely new and unknown to her as she looked up at Kylo. "He's not putting you in a cell, he won't disobey Snoke. We are training again tomorrow."

Rey nodded in understanding, the sudden, strange feeling leaving her as Kylo's hand left her face and he strode away.

* * *

Kylo watched her from across the table in her room, trying to fathom why the girl before him would rather eat _portions_ above everything else on the ship. He watched her tear into one of the plastic packets and toss the slimy looking veg-meat onto a small griddle Kylo had ordered to be put in Rey's room, that sat on top of the table before her. He did his best not to breathe in the sudden stench of it cooking as it hit the hot surface. Still, he watched on slightly intrigued, while she poured the beige powder into a bowl of water she poured from a cup which Rey hadn't needed to measure. She stirred it with her finger quickly before gingerly picking at the veg-meat and flipping each piece over.

"Are you going to eat?" She broke the silence between them, grabbing out the loaf of bread from the bowl and tearing a piece off, tossing it into her open mouth.

"Not this," Kylo answered her shortly before leaning back in his chair. He began to take his leather gloves off before rubbing at the terribly sore spot over his sternum. Watching Rey move stiffly, he knew she was in pain as well.

"I don't normally eat in front of people," Rey said, her mouth half full of bread as she carefully slid each piece of the slimy green food off of the griddle and onto a glass plate.

"It's obvious," Kylo answered her, noting her complete lack of table manners. She had one of her legs beneath her, the other knee was resting near her shoulder as she hunched over the table, both of her elbows on the surface. She was chewing loudly and with her mouth open. Oddly, it wasn't putting Kylo off. He almost caught himself smiling at her, realizing how comfortable she looked in his presence.

"It's kind of weird," she glanced up at him from her meal before quickly averting her gaze.

"Should I leave?" Kylo asked her. Rey looked up to him again quickly, the look on her face answering him. She was silent to his question. looking worried that her only company would leave. "Tell me," he pushed.

"No," Rey answered immediately.

Kylo stood anyways, picking up his helmet, and Rey felt the food she was eating settle heavily in her stomach. Instead of making his exit, he walked around the table, the chair he was in following him until he was next to her. The chair settled onto the ground quietly before Kylo sat down again, next to Rey. He placed his helmet on the table before him and Rey's eyes moved from him, to the helmet, to her nearly finished food.

Whatever was left on the plate she shoved into her mouth and chewed quickly, washing down the last of the food with her water. "Can I see that?" She asked Kylo, wiping her hands off on her pant legs, then shifted in her chair so that she was sitting on her feet.

Kylo was confused for a second, his eyebrows furrowed, before he followed her gaze to the helmet. "Yes," he answered Rey and she barely hesitated before she took it off the table, the weight surprising her, and laid it upside down in her lap. Inside she could see the electrical workings and screen for the eye slit. Rey looked up to him, gauging Kylo's reaction, before she lifted the helmet onto her head.

"Whoa," she looked around, her field of vision obscured but what she could see was enhanced and computerized. "Whoa," she said again, hearing her voice distort from the mouthpiece. She looked to Kylo, who was leaning forward on the table, his hands folded in front of his mouth to hide the smile that was growing on his face. She could see it spread up to his eyes, through the slight red tint and digital displays.

"How do you fight in this?" Rey stood up, her chair screeching as it scraped across the floor. Her head tilted to the side from the weight of the helmet before she fixed it back properly onto her head with her hands.

"It helps me focus," Kylo responded, watching her curiously.

Rey looked around the room, only finding confusion in what the displays were showing her. With a sudden idea, Rey reached forward and willed the empty water glass to her hand. The explosion in the display caught Rey off guard, however and she ducked, the glass flying past her and shattering on the wall behind her.

"Careful," Kylo stood quickly and walked to her, "It catches-"

He was too lake with his warning as Rey tugged the helmet off and the back of it caught her hair. A pained gasp escaped her as she struggled to get the helmet off of her and out of her hair.

"Stop," Kylo told her moving his hands to the back of her head to try and untangle her hair from the wires in his helmet. "Stop struggling," he told her again as she tried yanking the helmet off once more. As her hair came free Kylo took the helmet and set it next to him on the table with a thud. He felt her hand then, moving to the spot in the back of her head where her hair had caught, where his hand remained. Their eyes snapped to each others, brown meeting darker brown.

Kylo, momentarily shocked, watched the same expression fall onto Rey's face. He tried to withdraw his hand before watching her expression continue to shift and felt her fingers move over his. Everything began to snap in place for Kylo then, staring into her eyes. Everything he had tried to deny since first seeing her in the forests of Takonda was laid in front of him, plain as day.

Ben had loved that little girl, finding camaraderie with the quirky, ever impressed Rey, and now Kylo loved her in a whole new way. He admired her bullheadedness and seemingly unwavering optimism, of course, but he couldn't deny now that there was something further, some complete and primal attraction for Rey.

In silence, he watched her eyes shift from his, along the scar she had left across his face and down to his lips. Before she could look back to his eyes, and without having to pry into her mind to know what Rey was thinking, Kylo leaned down to the shorter woman and pressed his lips into hers.

Rey responded stiffly at first, unsure about exactly what Kylo was doing and tested the waters by pressing up and into him gently, closing her wide, shocked eyes as she did. Her hand left is on the back of her head and wrapped itself around the back of Kylo's, using him to get better leverage on her tip toes. Kylo held her steady, feeling Rey open up to him in a completely new way before he felt it. The light hit him all at once, bathing him, drowning him in a nearly physical heat like the blazing sun on Jakku.

Quickly, Kylo retreated, back into the tendrils of the darkness that shrouded him. He backed away before turning a quick decision to leave crossing his mind. He stopped with his back to Rey in the entrance of her room, catching his breath and slowly recovering from that shock. His breath evened out as he stood there, composing himself. Kylo had realized much about his relationship with Rey in that brief kiss, but one thing stood out: he had forgotten what it felt like to bask in the light surrounding Rey.

And he wanted more.

Kylo turned slowly to look back at Rey, who stared back at him in confusion, her arms wrapped tightly around her abdomen. He moved back to her as swiftly as he had left, watching Rey remove her arms from herself and hold them out to him. Kylo walked into her arms before bending down and picking Rey up, wrapping her legs around his waist as their lips met again with a new found fever of lust. Kylo continued another two steps forward until Rey's back was pressed flat against the wall behind her, allowing himself to stray further away from what he had worked so hard to achieve so he could lose himself in that light.


	6. Chapter 6

_But the first thing that I will do_ _i_ _s bury my love for yo_ _u..._

Rey's breath came in shallow, short huffs. She lay on her back atop the bed with the bed sheets in tangles around her legs. Next to her, Kylo sat up and swung his bare legs over the edge of the bed, feet planting firmly on the ground.

"So that's what Finn meant by 'mind blowing'," Kylo heard Rey sigh to herself and he turned back to look at her, an eyebrow quirked. Rey, modesty suddenly flooding her, grabbed for the sheets and covered herself.

"Finn, the traitor?" Kylo asked, a twinge of jealousy shooting through his chest at the mere mention of the other man.

"Finn, my friend," Rey corrected him, still laying on her back. That quickly changed when Kylo stood up. "Are you leaving?" She asked as quickly as she sat up, watching Kylo sort through their clothes scattered on the ground.

"It's late," Kylo, with his arms full of his clothes, stood back up and looked to Rey once more. "I don't want General Hux to ruin this."

Rey had her bottom lip caught between her teeth, trying to keep her eyes on Kylo's face. "You don't usually worry about him."

"This isn't a usual situation," Kylo pointed out and noticed the change on Rey's face, the traces of elation and ecstasy left over were slowly turning into guilt.

"Maybe you should go," she looked away from him then, picking at the threads in the sheets.

Kylo considered for a moment, the pull to Rey's light and the want for her company didn't keep him torn for long. Rey looked back to him quickly as he dropped the clothes he had gathered and got back into bed with her. Rey didn't have time to question him before she had his lips on hers.

"You can probably talk us out of trouble," Kylo mumbled as he pulled away, his fingers running through her loose hair as he moved to kiss her forehead.

"What would I say?" Rey almost giggled, her smile wide and cheeks blushing from the sudden affection.

"Tell him to shoot himself out the airlock," Kylo responded and Rey lost her smile to confusion.

"Are you joking?" She asked him and a smile of Kylo's own ghosted over his lips.

"No, not really," he responded, laying on his side next to Rey, propping himself up with his left arm. Keeping the covers over her, Rey shifted to her side, laying her head on her right forearm so she could stare up at him.

"That's morbid," she teased him. "I'd much rather convince him that he's a Stormtrooper with janitorial duties," she laughed. Rey was shocked, however, when Kylo laughed with her.

"That would be brilliant," Kylo came down quickly from the laughter, his features once more calm. Rey resorted back to staring at him, with an awe that had been growing stronger the past couple of days. Kylo watched her contemplate something for a moment before she reached up and moved his dark hair back and out of his face. With the feeling of Rey gently running her short nails across his scalp, Kylo closed his eyes. Almost immediately after, her fingers left his hair and suddenly Rey was tenderly running them across the scar she had given him, from his right eyebrow, down to his cheek and jaw, and along his neck to his shoulder.

Just as she reached the end of the scar he caught her hand with his own and, eyes still closed, pressed his lips to her fingertips gently. "I'm sorry," Rey spoke with a hushed voice and Kylo finally opened his eyes to look back at her. "I was afraid, and so angry at you for killing Han."

"Are you still afraid?" Kylo asked her, keeping her hand within his own and watching her eyes well.

Rey began to shake her head "no" before pausing and after a silent contemplation, she answered, "Yes."

Kylo felt a stinging pain then, in his chest, as she admitted that to him, and he struggled to respond. "I regret it," he spoke, truthful with Rey as she had been with him. "It was a mistake, all of it." Kylo let go of Rey's had to lie down on his back, staring at the ceiling so he wouldn't have to see her while he explained. "We were following Snoke's orders. It started with Hosnian Prime, I just watched my home be destroyed and I was so preoccupied with finding that map with you and the droid."

"You're still following Snoke's orders," Rey stated with the same quiet voice.

 _Of course I'm still following his orders, he's my master, it was all necessary_. Kylo's reasons kept popping up in his mind but he kept them all silent, because he realized that Rey had a point. Instead he changed the subject. "You loved it on Hosnian Prime. It was the greatest thing to you, I don't think you've ever seen buildings that tall before."

"I've been there?" Rey asked and Kylo turned his head to finally look at her. The tears were still present but she looked intrigued now.

"Luke and I took you there after he..." _Oh no_. "I killed your parents." He couldn't stop the admission, the truth forcing it's way out of his lungs and onto his tongue.

Rey looked frozen in shock, even her breathing stopped as she tried to process the confession. "Y-you showed me what happened," she denied it at first.

"I lied to you to convince you to leave," Kylo continued, turning onto his side to face Rey. She couldn't deny that he was telling her the literal naked truth. Fear, the familiar emotion, was growing in his gut as he reached out to her, his hand settling on the side of Rey's head. She had given him everything and now she might never trust him again. She already admitted to still being afraid.

Rey was silent, still looking confused, but allowed Kylo's memories into her head, immediately seeing a frightened teenager, a young Ben Solo, being chased by a man Rey presumed to be her father. He caught up with the teenager, nearly striking him down while demanding to know where Luke Skywalker was.

The assault from the man came with heavy and violent blows, with an unrelenting fury, though Ben was smaller and quicker. Rey could feel her heart pounding, her arms were tired, and her breath was quick and ragged, before Luke came to his nephews aid.

Ben was on the ground by that time and Rey could hear a nagging voice, like a fire in the base of her skull, willing her to kill her father. The heat grew into a rage and Ben was back on his feet, his blue lightsaber back on and swinging at her father as he dueled with Luke.

"Ben, _no_!" She heard Luke shouting as the lightsaber was thrust into her father's back before being violently ripped sideways.

Rey was hardly able to keep up with what was happening as a woman's scream overpowered Luke's voice. Ben had turned around in time to see a woman charging at him. Rey couldn't hear Luke's voice, only the growing chant of " _Kill them, prove your strength, kill them_ ," from within her own head. In Ben's wrath, he sprinted at the woman and blocked the first blow from her, before cutting her arms off at her elbows. In another second his lightsaber pierced her heart.

Suddenly, the rage had vanished, the voice had vanished, the burning pain had vanished, and Rey was left staring at her mother's face in utter terror.

"Ben... What did you do?"

The blue saber was gone instantly, leaving only a hilt in Ben's hands. Rey's mother, who had fallen before him, was now crumpled into a heap on the ground, a hot tear still sliding down the bridge of her straight nose.

Ben blinked, making sure that the corpse was real and that he had actually killed the woman, before turning to look to his uncle, his master.

Only, Rey was met with Kylo's remorse, back in the bed next to her. Tears were stinging at her eyes and her heart was still pounding, but she was confused. What was that voice, that rage?

Still connected, she could feel Kylo's insecurity as he pulled his hand away from her head. He didn't know what to tell her and he was mad at himself for revealing the truth after hiding it for so long.

"Kylo," she mumbled, _Ben_ she thought, and reached for him, moving closer. He was silent to her as she pulled him towards closer. Still silent, he wrapped his arms around her while she held his head to her chest. Did it really matter? Her parents were Dark Side users, both of them. If Ben and Luke had been slain, if she hadn't ended up on Jakku, she would still be wanted by Snoke. Ben killing her parents didn't make any difference.

"I forgive you," Rey mumbled, her fingers running through Kylo's hair, and he continued his silence.

* * *

Rey felt like she had been sat in front of that table for hours. Her saberstaff was partially dismantled in front of her and she had one of her Kyber crystals levitating before her. She was growing weary of trying to turn it and had no idea, really, what she was doing.

Losing her concentration briefly, she wondered if she should ask Kylo or if he could even help her. Then again, Kylo's own crystal was cracked and she wasn't sure if her twin crystals could manage the same fate.

Rey breathed in deep, opening her honey colored eyes that reflected the small blue crystal floating between her hands. Her will was renewed and she concentrated harder on the small crystal. Her determination alone was not enough and the tiny crystal maintained a bright blue hue, rotating slowly as if taunting her. She knew that she needed to use the Dark Side and she had drawn power from it easiest when she was angry, when she was in pain. Only finding that again was near impossible.

Rey tried, she tried to concentrate on the anger she felt for being abandoned on Jakku, she tried to focus on the fear she felt while growing up alone, and she tried to build on the anger she felt for Luke Skywalker. He had not killed her parents, but he had abandoned her as a child and then he had kept her true past hidden when she found him again. She may have been orphaned because of Kylo but he at least confessed to her what had happened. He had shown her exactly what he felt.

Rey closed her eyes yet again, feeling her thoughts derail _again_ as she thought about Kylo and the dangerous game they were playing. What would happen to them if someone found out Kylo was spending his nights in her bed? What would Snoke do? What were Snoke's plans for her anyway, was she going to be forced to fight her friends? Would she have to betray Finn and Poe? What would happen to Kylo if she escaped? Would he forgive her?

Rey's eyes were shut tight, trying to keep her tears from streaming down her cheeks, though they were persistent. With the thought that she had no control over her life again, she couldn't leave Kylo and she couldn't defy Snoke, Rey sobbed. She gave up trying to turn her crystal, her hands clamping over her mouth. Her body shook and she hunched in her chair, removing her hands to take a sharp breath in and pull her knees to her chest.

"Rey?" She heard from the other side of her door and remembered why she shouldn't cry. She didn't answer the voice she recognized as a Knight of Ren. The Stormtroopers had not returned to her hall, however Kylo insisted on keeping one or two of his knights at her door, not to keep her in but to keep others out.

"I'm fine," she called back, forcing the words out of her throat and keeping her fists tight as she hugged her legs. It didn't take long for her to notice the change of light in her room with her eyes back open, though the tears left her vision blurry.

The blue hue in her room was replaced with red from her bleeding Kyber crystal. Rey, still feeling the sorrow that had turned the crystal, was shocked as well, but had no idea if she could turn her second crystal in her staff.

While contemplating her decision she felt a coldness approaching her. She had slowly been getting used to the Finalizer's atmosphere, but the sudden blanket of thick cold was always synonymous with Kylo Ren, Rey had realized. She lowered her legs, pushing her chair further from the table and looked to the door. The knight greeted Kylo with a muffled voice and he dismissed them before the door slid open and Kylo stepped in, helmet, cape, and all.

He was silent as he entered, his head tilting in his helmet as his gaze shifted from her to the red Kyber crystal on the table. Rey wanted to say something to him in the silence and as the door closed behind him she wiped her eyes and said, "You're early."

Kylo's head tilted back to her, his shoulders relaxing and his hands unclenched from their fists. He reached up to remove his helmet and Rey found instant relief in seeing his face, he looked concerned. "What are you doing?" He stepped forward already knowing the answer.

"Blue is the wrong color," Rey responded, afraid he might find what she had been thinking, what had turned her Kyber crystal red. She remained in her seat, tense, as she watched him step towards the table and set his helmet down.

Wordless, he offered his gloved left hand to her. Immediately she took it as she stood up to wrap her arms around him, and felt warmth encompass her. Rey let herself sigh, relaxing for the moment with Kylo holding her against him, and wondered if she could dissuade him from trying to find her lost memories for the night.


	7. Chapter 7

_I'm a castaway, and men reap what they sow..._

"He has her in her own quarters on the Finalizer."

Luke opened his blue eyes, the Force ghost of his first mentor before him.

"She's not held prisoner?" Luke asked Obi Wan.

"No. Her room is not even guarded," he responded. Luke glanced over to the ghost of his father, pacing wildly around the room like a caged animal, before looking back to Obi Wan.

"So she could leave? Rey could try to escape?" Luke asked.

"She won't," Anakin answered before Obi Wan could.

"Father?" Luke asked for clarification.

"She's in love with Kylo Ren," Anakin answered, stopping and crossing his arms over his chest. "He's not going to tell you."

Obi Wan sighed, his eyes closed. "The relationship they had when they were children. It's grown tenfold," Obi Wan reluctantly advised Luke. He felt like a fool. Why would he agree to train Rey in the first place? Only to lose her like he had lost all his other padawans. He had failed _again_.

"What does Snoke have planned for her? And what about Ben?" Luke asked both of the ghosts.

Obi Wan Kenobi opened his eyes and turned to look at Anakin, who shook his head and began pacing once more in his anger. "Snoke is planning on using her like a parasite to keep Ben under his control."

"So all is lost?" Luke asked, feeling a twinge of anger himself, though it was extinguished as soon as it came.

"If you would let me talk to him-" Anakin began.

"We've had this conversation many times before," Obi Wan cut him off, turning to fully look at his old friend from the ground.

"If you had let me see him from the beginning this all could have been avoided. Snoke would have no influence over him," Anakin argued. "If he knew what Snoke has planned he'd help Rey escape."

"You think he would protect her and betray his master?" Obi Wan asked Anakin and the look he received back was near murderous.

Luke didn't get any further exchange from the two, however as he heard his name called from the door of the temple. He turned and saw his sister making her way through the door.

"Leia," he responded, glancing back to where Obi Wan and Anakin had once been but found himself unsurprisingly alone.

* * *

"You're learning fast," Zora stated, sitting behind Rey with her slender fingers running through Rey's dark hair.

"I've always had to learn fast," Rey answered her, wincing as Zora snagged a tangle in her wet locks as she combed her hair out.

"How long were you on Jakku?" Zora understood what Rey meant. "I don't know much about you."

"Fourteen years," Rey answered, keeping her chin up and neck straight as Zora started to section off pieces of her damp hair for braids.

"That taught you to be independent," Zora speculated. Rey felt her tugging at her scalp, forming tight braids on one side of her head. "And creative," She added, glancing from Rey's hair to the table through the archway, the Jakku System model sitting on the surface.

"We had to be to eat. There was this Crolute who ran the junk trade, the _Blobfish_ ," Rey said, grimacing at the thought of Unkar Plutt. Behind her, Zora chuckled. "He would trade us portions and water for salvage us scavengers would find on wrecked Imperial and Rebel ships."

"A Crolute on a desert planet?" Zora asked. "Blobfish indeed. So you had been left there by Luke Skywalker after he killed your parents?"

"Kylo killed my mother and father," Rey clarified. Oddly enough, the more she said it the more Rey felt at peace with it.

"Kylo Ren killed your parents and you aren't... Upset at him?" Zora asked, trying to look at Rey's expression as she moved onto her second braid.

"I barely remember them actually," Ray confessed, "I've been waiting for Kylo to come back for me my whole life anyways." She chewed on her bottom lip, her cheeks growing warm at that thought. Rey understood that what had happened between them was odd, of course, however Kylo was no longer that monster she had met back on Takodana.

"You've been training with him a lot... alone," Zora pressed, a sudden wave of shaking jealousy overtaking her.

"He's been trying to help me remember..." Rey trailed off as she noticed Zora's face, her lips turned down and her eyebrows furrowed together.

"Oh," Zora tried to ignore the sudden feeling and pinned the second braid into place on Rey's head.

"What about you?" Rey asked, making sure that the subject was changed, for her and Kylo's sake. "I know nothing about you or the other knights."

"I knew my parents about as long as you had before I was taken in by the First Order. I was Jhen Voss for five years, then I was FN-1989 for another nine until I caught the Supreme Leader's attention and he dubbed me Zora Ren." Zora's brief explanation painted a vivid picture for Rey, recognizing the number from Finn's past. She remembered the stories he would tell her, and Rey felt sorrow for Zora.

"You caught Snoke's attention?" Rey asked her.

"He was looking for anyone with superior abilities or Force sensitivity." Rey's hair was finished, braided up and close to her scalp. Zora's previously occupied hands fell to her lap and Rey turned in her seat on the edge of her bed to better face her.

"Are you Force sensitive?" Rey asked her, already knowing that Zora was a skilled warrior.

"I'm not like you," Zora took in Rey's appearance. She had her hair in Zora's braids, she was wearing Zora's clothes, and she had Kylo's full attention. Rey was taking over her life.

"I'm sure you just need-" Rey began, trying to reassure Zora and staying oblivious to the brewing jealousy growing in the other woman.

Zora stopped Rey from speaking as she rose her left hand, palm reaching for a glass left on the table in the other room. Her green eyes left Rey before she looked over at the glass, her face slowly contorting into something angry as she concentrated. Rey looked to the glass as well and saw it move, sliding across the tabletop, but only an inch or so.

Rey looked back to Zora, her eyes now closed, her thin eyebrows pushed together in concentration and her hand shaking, trying to bend the Force to her will. Rey watched Zora's concentration deepen until her face began to turn red. Rey could almost feel the Force shift and stayed silent as she watched Zora. The shift, however, suddenly grew into something powerful and dark and Rey stood up from her bed in shock, feeling the thickness of it blanket the room. She realized quickly, that it wasn't Zora that caused it, but Kylo.

Rey turned quickly back to Zora, who was still on the bed, her eyes glassy and her breath coming in long heaves, the glass clutched in her left hand. She looked up to Rey as a drop of dark crimson fell out of her nose, Zora quickly wiped it away with the back of her hand.

"It's Kylo," Rey said and Zora got off of the bed quickly, discarding the glass. "Something is wrong."

"Stay here," Zora didn't bother looking back to Rey as she rushed out of the room.

* * *

The control panel was ripped out of the wall with sparks that should have been satisfying for Kylo, instead it failed to kill off the weak, foolish boy that he had found still clinging to life inside of him.

The red, chaotic blade ripped through the wall, puncturing burning hot holes where Kylo thrust until it was nearly destroyed. His chest heaving, Kylo stopped his assault on the wall and destroyed electronics, taking in the view. Impossibly, he felt as if his rage hadn't reached it's peak and he dropped the lightsaber from his grip, the fiery blade disappearing as the hilt fell to his floor.

Kylo stood still for a moment, feeling the will to let the anger he suddenly felt subside, before he turned quickly and assaulted the wall behind him with his fists. He let out a scream as he created a sizable dent in the opposing wall. Eventually, as his fist grew numb, he slowed and stopped punching the wall all together, his fist staying in the hole he created for a moment.

The room was silent now and Kylo's rage had turned into something entirely more dangerous, as he turned and fell down, his back sliding down the wall.

Kylo didn't have time to feed off of the overwhelming fear he felt, as he noticed a strong presence around him. Like a reflex, Kylo looked to the other room, where he could see Darth Vader's burned helmet upon its pedestal. Nothing, however, was there. His gaze fell to the floor for a moment before he turned his head and quickly looked the other way. Standing in the corner of the room, with his arms folded in a dark robe, was a man Kylo had never seen before, yet he seemed eerily familiar. He was bathed in a translucent blue aura as he stared back at Kylo, a solemn look on his face.

"Ben," he said, breaking Kylo's daze. He suddenly had no doubt of who was before him, whose ghost this was.

"Anakin," he breathed, keeping his dark eyes on the man as he slowly walked around the room, observing the wreckage Kylo had caused. This wasn't right. Kylo had seen Darth Vader before, he had spoken with his grandfather but this man... This wasn't him.

"I don't have much time with you," he explained, turning back to face Kylo. "Snoke has deceived you." It wasn't a question, it was a statement of truth, and Kylo felt a quick flash of anger. "It's not the first time. What are his plans for Rey?"

Confused, Kylo answered his grandfather, "She's not becoming a Knight of Ren like I was told. Snoke has different plans."

"What are his plans?" Anakin asked again, remaining solemn, standing before Kylo who was still on the ground. Kylo didn't know what to say, he had no idea what Snoke's plan for Rey was. "Don't pretend you don't know, Ben," Anakin told Kylo before he answered. "His goal is to bring back the Sith rule over the galaxy. He's the master and you're the apprentice. Where does that leave Rey?"

Kylo thought he understood where his grandfather was taking this. "He won't replace me with Rey."

"He's not replacing you," Anakin told him, confusing Kylo more than he already was. With the rule of two, there was no place for Rey. If Rey wasn't replacing him, she had to be replacing...

"The rule of two has its flaw. Every Master and Apprentice there's been have murdered and betrayed each other to gain or keep power." Anakin knelt before Kylo now. "What's to keep you from killing him?"

"Rey," Kylo breathed, the name barely leaving his lips.

"Get her out of his grasp," Anakin stressed and Kylo jumped up, his mind still in shock.

Before he could ask any further questions, the ghost of Anakin was gone.

"Kylo?" He heard Zora's voice call out in the same moment, she entered his room without any discretion. She glanced around the room, taking notice of the carnage Kylo had caused to his walls.

"Snoke has been lying to me," Kylo responded to her shock.

"Lying to you?" Zora stepped towards him.

"He's been lying to us, I don't know how long," Kylo's aching fists tightened at his side.

"Why would Snoke lie to us? Kylo, it doesn't make sense-"

"You're blinded by his power," Kylo's voice was a near growl.

"What happened?" Zora took a different approach, unfazed by his anger.

"Rey, she's not becoming a knight. He has other plans for her," Kylo began to explain.

"Do you really think she's ready to become a Knight of Ren?" Zora asked, not understanding what he meant.

"She's not becoming a knight at all," Kylo wasn't sure how to explain what he knew, how to make her believe.

"Kylo," Zora attempted to calm him and reached out for him. With his anger, he swatted her hand away and left into his other room. Though hurt, Zora followed him.

"You don't understand, I can't make you understand," Kylo paced back and forth in front of his bed.

"Try me," Zora watched him, her green eyes not once leaving his scarred face. She remembered when he had first gotten out of the Bacta tank on Mustafar, his body had healed but he was still humiliated and furious. This betrayal Kylo was feeling, maybe she could help him past this as well.

Kylo had stopped pacing and was standing at the foot of his bed, staring at Zora and trying to slip into her head without physically trying. "Where do your allegiances lie? Who are the Knights of Ren loyal to? The Supreme Leader?"

Zora felt her mouth go dry. Not much could scare her, but the treason Kylo was hinting at was enough to worry her. In silence she stepped towards Kylo before kneeling.

"They've always lied with you, master."


	8. Chapter 8

_And I say what I know to be true..._

Rey stood with her back to Kylo's, a short wooden staff in each of her hands. She had already tried complaining to Kylo, asking him to give her a quarterstaff like her saberstaff, or give her just one like the Skywalker lightsaber. She had been using a wooden staff of that length before and felt like she was getting better with it. Kylo couldn't be persuaded in her favor, insisting that Rey train with one weapon in each hand. What made it worse was that Zora had been using a quarterstaff. Even Kylo was using just one like his own lightsaber. With one weapon in each hand, Rey had to constantly concentrate on what to do with each and could barely focus on more than one opponent.

She wasn't sure if she preferred the "every man for himself" style fights she, Zora, and Kylo would have, or his new method of Rey and Kylo versus his knights. Most of the time she felt like Kylo was protecting her while she tried to figure out how to fight with two weapons at once. During these brawls, if Rey strayed too far from Kylo, his knights would brutally pick her apart.

If fighting all the knights at once taught Rey anything, it was that she always left her back open. When she felt like she had control of both her weapons, Rey could try and concentrate on keeping her back towards Kylo. It wasn't the perfect strategy, with how much Kylo would spin around he would accidentally strike Rey if she was too close to him.

Another downside to fighting more than two people at once was her inability to recognize any patterns. If she didn't have at least three of the knights attacking her, Rey was most likely on the ground or scrambling to dodge painful blows from the wooden staffs.

Lastly, Rey was afraid to use the Force to aid her with training. She knew full well that she was capable and it's what Kylo wanted, but after what she had done to Zora, when General Hux had caught them, Rey was fearful that she could actually harm one of them.

In the middle of one of their fights, Rey was trying to balance her attention between Anda and Jasreil. While focusing on Anda, Jasreil had caught her unaware and knocked her to the ground with a powerful blow to the middle of her back. Rey held back her pained scream, temporarily feeling as if her spine had caught fire, while her weapons flew across the floor.

"Rey?" Kylo called as the fighting immediately ceased.

"I'm fine," she groaned, watching Stegunn stop one of the short wooden staffs with his foot and the other rolling to a stop near Brieand. Pushing herself off the floor, she noticed Anda's hand offering help and she accepted, the taller knight pulling her up quickly.

"Keep your feet spread for balance," Jasreil instructed, nudging one of her ankles with his boot. "And keep one of your hands defensive," he showed her a stance and Rey mimicked the pose, one of her fists held in front of her and the other held back, ready to swing down.

"That makes sense," Rey mumbled before dropping her arms and standing straight. She quietly thanked Stegunn for returning both of her weapons before following Anda back to the middle of the storage wing. She stood again with her back to Kylo's and watched Zora stand before her, a cross of boredom and vexation on her face, the staff Rey should have was held loosely in both of her hands in a stance that didn't show any interest in fighting.

"Ready?" Kylo looked back to her, as she took up the stance that Anda had just shown her. She nodded before looking back to Zora, and then to Brieand who stood next to Zora, her wooden staff at the ready.

When Kylo moved forward to meet the knights before him Rey did the same to Brieand and Zora. Zora, however, just stepped aside, still holding the quarterstaff loosely in her hands. Wary of how Zora was acting, Rey sparred with Brieand and had a feeling that she was only allowing Rey to expand on what Jasreil had shown just her, staying strictly defensive.

Rey's breath suddenly caught in her throat, sensing Zora finally move at her once she had been all but forgotten. Rey had to turn quickly, holding up both her short staffs in a cross above her to keep Zora's weapon from coming down onto her head. Immediately Rey realized her mistake and when Brieand moved to strike Rey's ribs, she had to duck and ended up on the ground to avoid them both. She rolled away and struggled back to her feet, trying to ready herself for both women. Rey also noticed briefly that Kylo and the rest of the Knights of Ren were now merely watching the exchange.

"Leave her to me," Zora purred to Brieand before calmly walking towards Rey, twirling her quarterstaff in her hands, a motion that Rey recognized from when she would practice on her own on Jakku. When Rey tried to time Zora's movements, she was caught off guard by Zora lunging at her and was barely able to dodge the end of the staff from the quick strike.

Rey was able to parry Zora's strikes but found that her two shorter staffs weren't long enough to counter attack. Almost like Zora could read Rey's movements, she was ruthless in her attacks and seemed to have her onslaught planned out as if the fight was choreographed.

White hot pain shot through the back of Rey's left hand and she lost one of her staffs. In her shock, Rey gripped the base of her remaining weapon with both palms, but it was much too short to be used like the Skywalker lightsaber. She began to feel like Zora wasn't simply training with her, the fight didn't feel like before when Rey had fought her. The thought crossed Rey's mind that Zora actually wanted to hurt her.

"That's enough," Kylo called as Zora continued her malicious assault and Rey felt immediate relief. Zora only paused for a moment, glancing to Kylo before looking back to Rey, her blue eyes dark and hateful.

"Zora?" Rey asked with a heaving chest. She nearly missed Zora's sudden attack, the quarterstaff being swung at where her jaw met her neck. Rey ducked and had to move quickly to try avoid another strike from Zora, this one narrowly aimed at the back of Rey's knee. Rey fell and lost her second staff, but managed to land on her hands and knees instead of falling onto her back.

"Zora!" Kylo called, impatient with her disobedience. This time, however, Zora didn't stop, she didn't even look like she was considering listening to her master. Zora swung at Rey's head again, and with her powerful strike Rey had no choice but to grab onto the end of the staff, something that would have burned the palms off of her hands if she had been using a real saberstaff.

Zora paused then, looking from Rey's hands to Rey's face, at first shocked and then growing enraged. Baring her teeth, she tried to yank the staff out of Rey's hands but she held fast, using Zora's momentum to pull herself back to her feet.

"What are you doing?" Rey asked and received no response other than a frustrated growl and another harsh tug from Zora. Unfortunately for her, Rey was back in familiar territory, no longer having to pretend that the quarterstaff would burn her with it plasma blades.

Rey pulled on her end of the staff as roughly as she could, nearly yanking it out of Zora's grip. Using her momentum she moved her grip to the middle of the quarterstaff and knocked Zora to the ground, finally winning the weapon from her.

Across the storage wing, Kylo watched Rey and recognized the anger she had, remembering when Rey had won their duel in the forests on the Star Killer Base.

Zora didn't stay down for long, looking at Rey's anger filled eyes before grunting as she rolled to grab one of Rey's discarded staffs. Rey quickly realized it was a mistake to have stopped attacking Zora and in a matter of seconds, she had the second staff in her hands. Quickly preparing for Zora to attack her again, she didn't realize that Zora was back in her element as well.

With both of them fighting using the weapons they had grown up with, the ensuing fight did not last long. Unlike Rey, Zora had no issue attacking her opponent with her short staffs, and Rey was able to thwart her attacks as well as try to strike Zora down. A moment or two later, Zora had nearly struck one of Rey's hands and she had to let go of the staff, moving it lower to it's end as it was knocked low by Zora's strike. Rey had a clear shot for Zora's chest and immediately tried to take it.

When Rey's hand came back up, she overshot her target and her fist, still firmly holding the end of the staff, collided with Zora's jaw. Instantly Rey froze, watching Zora stumble back and drop the shorter staffs she had picked up to hold her mouth.

Spiraling back down to reality, Rey's face softened. "Zora, I'm sorry-!" Her words caught in her mouth as she watched Zora spit blood onto the floor and wipe the rest from her lips.

Zora looked from the blood to Rey with a truly murderous glare and in an instant her hand reared back and flew at Rey's face. The sound Zora's palm made against Rey's cheek rivaled the cracks that the wooden staffs were making, and left a sharp ringing in her left ear to serenade her shock.

"Zora!" Kylo immediately scolded his knight, completely losing his patience with Zora's insubordination, taking quick strides over to where Rey and Zora were. Zora, however, turned her hateful glare onto Kylo before making her way towards her cloak. She angrily snatched it up and headed for the exit, ignoring Kylo when he shouted, "Zora Ren!"

Rey was frozen in place, tears flooding her eyes from the pain and humiliation, and she dropped her quarterstaff, hearing Kylo's quick and heavy footsteps following Zora out of the storage bay.

The rest of the knights were coming down from the shock a thousand times faster than Rey, and Brieand approached her first. "You did good," she complimented Rey and she turned to face the knight, trying to wipe any emotion from her face. It was growing more difficult by the second not to cry from the pain and emotional shock of Zora outright slapping her. Out of any of them, Zora was the closest she had to a friend, she was the only Knight to spend any time with Rey apart from Kylo.

"Next time Kylo says stop, stop," Anda offered and Rey glanced to him, suddenly wondering if Kylo was going to be angry with her as well.

"Zora should have stopped," Brieand shook her head, "She deserved that hit, and shouldn't be training if she can't take it. Kylo nearly broke Lisryk's hand and he didn't throw a tantrum," Brieand pointed to the silent knight.

"Fair point," Anda nodded and Brieand turned back to Rey.

"Don't worry about them, it's just some lover's quarrel."

It was sudden and more painful than Zora's slap when Rey heard what Brieand said. Rey's gut twisted and she felt like she might immediately throw up. She couldn't respond, she couldn't move her tongue in her mouth, let alone breathe.

Brieand caught the change in Rey's expression immediately, it had changed from embarrassment to heartbreak in a split second and Brieand's own jaw went slack.

"Wonderful," Anda muttered, noticing Rey's demeanor as quickly as the rest of the Knights of Ren. Lisryk tossed his weapon aside with a sigh and on top of her humiliation, Rey realized that she had just given her and Kylo away and a whole new fear crept up her spine.

Rey looked away from the knights, her vision growing blurry from tears, and tried to say something, _anything_ , but a shaking breath was all that left her mouth. Frighteningly, it almost sounded like a sob.

Before the knights could react, before Rey would let herself cry in front of them, she turned and ran out of the storage bay herself, leaving behind the cloak Zora had let her borrow.

"Rey!" Brieand called after her.

"Should we follow her?" Stegunn asked but Rey was already too far to hear the knights' decision.

It was the first time Rey had been alone on the Finalizer and she hoped that she could navigate the massive Star Destroyer on her own while tears clouded her vision. Rey managed to find an elevator without much trouble or any Stormtroopers brave enough to try and stop and question her.

Desperately trying to get the door to slide closed behind her, Rey backed into the corner and slid down the walls with a loud cry, the elevator slowly starting its ascent to the living area on the Finalizer.

Rey held her knees to her chest and hung her head low, her forehead resting on her arms as she violently shook from weeping. Thoughts of trying to escape crossed her mind again and she took them seriously now. Rey felt as if she had no place on the Finalizer anymore, without Kylo, without _Ben Solo_ , she had no need or want to stay. She looked up to the elevator's controls then, wondering if she would be able to sneak onto one of the flight decks and steal a TIE Fighter. Finn and Poe had managed to do it once, and the First Order wouldn't be able to shoot her down. Snoke's wrath would deter them.

Formulating a quick and sloppy plan, Rey jumped up from her corner and quickly rerouted the elevator to the lower levels of the Finalizer where she knew the flight bays were. Rey planned on abandoning everything but the clothes on her back, she was even leaving her saberstaff behind in her room. Anything to get away from Kylo's betrayal quicker.

By the time the elevator stopped, Rey had wiped the tears from her face, leaving her eyes raw and cheeks damp. If she was calm enough she could deal with any questioning Stormtroopers and officers with her mind tricks. Rey didn't have much trouble for the first few minutes of her scheme. The Finalizer was so vast that most hallways were deserted. There simply wasn't enough room or supplies on board to house and feed the Stormtroopers it would take to man every corner.

Just as Rey was beginning to gain confidence in her foolhardy plan, she rounded a corner that she believed would lead her to freedom, only to come face to face with General Hux and a half dozen Stormtroopers. Rey's confidence quickly vanished, both she and Hux immediately freezing in place as they stared at one another. Rey's face quickly resorted back to fear, while Hux's grew red with rage, and Rey quickly spun on her heel and ran back the way that she had come.

"Stop her!" Hux commanded and Rey could hear the Stormtroopers running after her. Before she could reach the elevator and isolate herself again, she felt two strong arms wrap around each of her own and pull her back. Two more grabbed onto her, their grips nearly leaving bruises on her skin, while the last two had their blasters pointed at her.

"Let me go!" Rey cried, too panicked to have any effect. Still she tried again, as General Hux briskly walked down the hall, his arms behind his back. "Let me go!" She took in a deep breath, trying to level her fear. "You will let me go," she sounded much more calm this time.

"What should we do with her, sir?" One of the Stormtroopers asked the quickly approaching general.

Rey closed her eyes, feeling the Force settle around her and repeated one more time with a calm and commanding voice, "You will let me go."

She felt the Stormtroopers immediately release her and they stepped back, chanting, "We will let you go."

Rey opened her eyes, once again to watch the shock flash across Hux's wild blue eyes, before she tried to turn and bolt for the elevator. Hux was already too close and caught Rey himself, violently slamming her against a wall with one arm, pinning her down, and the other hand over her mouth.

Rey tried to fight but she was too weak and defenseless without her voice, her calm vanishing with the Force surrounding her. "What are you doing?" Hux asked, debating on removing his hand from Rey's mouth so she could answer. Instead he felt that it was safer to command his Stormtroopers to detain her.

"Hold her, keep her from escaping and speaking," he looked back to the six Stormtroopers, who remained still and deaf to his order. Hux looked back to Rey, watching her brown eyes water, her eyebrows raised and furrowed together in fear.

"Tell them to listen to me," Hux spat, but was almost afraid of removing his hand from Rey's mouth. He only hesitated for a moment before releasing Rey's mouth, but Rey was silent. "Tell them," Hux urged. He knew his will was too strong, but there was nothing stopping her from telling the Stormtroopers to gun him down.

As Hux feared, Rey didn't issue the orders he wanted. "You're all dismissed," Rey sniffed, her eyes still locked with Hux's and full of terror and ... Heartbreak.

Recognizing the second, more prominent emotion in Rey, Hux couldn't bring himself to scold her, he was too perplexed. Instead he asked, "Where is Ren?" Rey's only response was tightly shutting her eyes, as if his question was acid on her skin. "What are you doing down here alone?" Hux tried.

"Please, I just want to go to my room," Rey plead with him, her voice quivering and weak.

"You expect me to believe you're simply lost? You were headed straight for a flight bay," Hux reprimanded her.

"Please," Rey asked again, extracting something close to pity from the General, who had felt no pity in his young life. The thought crossed his mind that this might just be her bending his mind to her will, but he didn't feel dumb or out of control. Instead he slowly released her and stepped back, watching Rey's face, tears rolling down her cheeks while her big brown eyes drank up his confusion.

They both waited, Hux waiting for Rey to try and control him or try to run again, and Rey for Hux to verbally abuse her or possibly smack her like Zora had. Both of them ended up holding their ground for a long moment before Hux reached slowly out to Rey. He had waited long enough to know that he was acting on his own accord and not of Rey's will.

Rey flinched as Hux grabbed onto her shoulder, surprisingly gentle, as he pulled her off the wall and turned her so that they could walk to the elevator together. He operated the controls to start the elevator up towards the living quarters on the Finalizer, and only let go of Rey once the doors were closed and she could not escape.

"Where is Kylo Ren?" Hux tried again, and the elevator slowly lifted them through his Star Destroyer.

Rey still didn't answer him and Hux glanced over to Rey. She was staring at the ground, holding her arms over her chest. She looked miserable and freezing cold. Hux briefly wondered if she may have killed him, but then realized how stupid the thought was. It was much more likely that Rey had been victim to one of Kylo Ren's infamous tantrums.

Shrugging off his First Order coat, he handed it to Rey, patiently waiting for her to take it from him, remembering Kylo doing the same with his cape the first day she had boarded the Finalizer. "Take it," Hux had to coax her and, slowly, Rey gained enough trust for him to accept the coat and drape it over her shoulders. "Once we reach the Supreme Leader, you can be rid of Ren." Rey looked up to his face then, shocked, thinking that he somehow knew her secret, the romantic affair she and Kylo were involved in. "You can ask to continue your training under Snoke directly, I'm sure he'll oblige." Hux looked away from Rey then and to the closed elevator doors. "He's very interested in you and your power."

"Do you know what he wants with me?" Rey quietly asked, holding his coat closed around her body. It wasn't meant to be full length but it was on her, Rey was swimming in the warm fabric.

"No. We believed you were going to become another Knight of Ren, but Snoke has since disproved that consensus." Hux only glanced over to her before returning is gaze to the elevator doors.

With a moment passing in silence between them, the doors opened. Hux replaced his hand on Rey's shoulder, only this time he had his arm wrapped around her, and silently escorted her back to her quarters. He stopped them once he neared her door and noticed that there were no Stormtroopers guarding her door, as he had ordered weeks prior.

"How long have they been 'dismissed'?" Hux asked, looking down to Rey, who kept her eyes on the floor.

"A while. Two weeks?" Rey replied quietly. He was going to order more, but realized that Rey could just get rid of them again, so he sighed instead.

"Your quarters," he moved towards her door and opened it for her.

Rey stepped inside and turned to face him, looking at his face once more, her eyes were red and eyelashes damp with sticky tears. "Thank you," she mumbled, removing his coat from her shoulders.

Hux debated taking it back, but realized that if Kylo showed up later, he'd most likely be after him and not Rey for it.

"Keep it for now, until I can get you warmer clothes," Hux placed his arms behind his back, ignoring the confusion on Rey's face. "Please don't try a stunt like you just pulled again, Rey," he continued before closing her door and making his way back down the hall alone. He felt that he should return to his duties but after his encounter with Rey, Armitage Hux felt drained. He decided instead to head to his own quarters instead.

He was not lucky enough to make the journey in peace, however, and as he backtracked towards the elevators, he was met with none other than Kylo Ren, exiting one of them alone.

Immediately, both men halted their movements as their eyes befell one another's. Any sympathy Hux had felt for Rey was not shared for Kylo and instead, his jaw tensed with rage.

"Do us all a favor on this ship, _Ren_ , and leave that girl alone," Hux seethed, finding it easier to scold Kylo when he didn't have his helmet to hide behind. He wasn't feeling patient enough to wait for Kylo's reply, though he saw his scarred face twist with anger as he walked past.

Hux only stopped walking when he heard the elevator doors slide open once more, and he turned to watch Kylo reenter. General Hux smirked, for once having Kylo Ren obey him, and continued on his way to his quarters.

Finally reaching his own door, he unfastened his collar as the door slid open. While the door closed behind him, Hux barely noticed the other occupant in his room. He stilled when he saw her, Zora Ren in his bedroom, seated on his bed. She had one of her arms wrapped around her knees while the other was undoing the braids in her long blonde hair.

The general was silent in his surprise, watching her blue eyes fall on his. It was obvious that she had been crying as well, her eyes and nose were as red as Rey's. What in the galaxy had Kylo Ren done?

"General," Zora's voice was low, purring, as her hair fell loose around her shoulders, left in waves from her braids. She stood from his bed and Armitage immediately realized why she had come.

"It's been a while," Hux swallowed, watching Zora as she began to unzip her uniform, the mesh and fabric slowly falling away from her body. She looked displeased with how hesitant he was, but Hux wanted answers more than he wanted the woman before him. "What did he do?"

"Shut up," Zora warned, stepping out of her clothes and walking over to Hux. He tried to keep his eyes on her face, but her lack of modesty was drawing his attention lower. Maybe his answers would have to wait.

Hux didn't have time to do anything as Zora advanced, looking like a wounded predator stalking her prey. She reached around Hux's neck and pulled him down into a feverish and starving kiss, wrapping her bare legs around him when he bent lower to pick up the shorter woman.

"He doesn't deserve you," he mumbled into her lips, deciding to give Zora exactly what she wanted while walking her back to his bed. Her only response was gathering a fist full of his ginger hair in her hand.

* * *

Rey's eyes shot open when she heard the door to her room slide open. They ached something fierce and she realized that she had cried herself to sleep, something she had grown used to on Jakku.

Without turning around, or asking who had come, she knew it was Kylo. Quickly, though it was futile, she pulled her bed covers up over her head and remained silent. She heard him walk inside, and she swore that she could also hear what sounded like an older droid following him. Kylo was still for a long time, and Rey remembered that she had left General Hux's coat draped over a chair at her table in the other room, and it had most likely caught Kylo's attention.

"Rey," Kylo's natural voice sounded, and Rey didn't respond. He didn't sound angry with her at least, but he knew that she was no longer sleeping. She heard his boots step into her bedroom, the droid rolling after him, silent say for the gears turning its treads.

"Rey," Kylo tried again, and she could feel his eyes on her, even through the blanket she had over herself.

"Please go," Rey's voice cracked, sounding dry and spent.

Kylo stood still for a moment, but he wasn't contemplating whether to oblige her request or not. Instead he was wondering what Hux had done, what he had told her.

"Rey," his voice was softer as he moved to the edge of Rey's bed and knelt before it. "Talk to me," he asked of her, reaching out with his right hand and laying his palm gently on her waist over the blanket she was hiding under. She tensed under his touch but Kylo didn't remove his hand.

"When were you going to tell me about her?" Rey asked suddenly, keeping her back to him but raising her voice. Kylo may not have been angry with her, but she was angry with him.

 _Of course_ , Kylo thought silently, _of course Hux told her about him and Zora_.

"Not Hux," Rey corrected his thoughts and Kylo was confused for a second, he wasn't even aware that she could read his thoughts, despite having his hand on her.

"Let me explain that to you-" Kylo began to offer but Rey threw his hand off of her waist before sitting up and pulling the covers off of her. Kylo felt his heart break at the sight of her face. Her eyes were red and swollen, her nose was raw, and her mouth was set in a deep scowl.

"Would you have told me if your knights didn't first?" Rey asked him, fuming.

Kylo blinked up at her in surprise, honestly not expecting to hear that it was his knights that gave him and Zora away. Now wasn't the time to wonder why, he realized, and instead answered Rey truthfully.

"I didn't find it relevant-" he began.

"Relevant?!" Rey nearly screamed back at him and Kylo closed his eyes for a moment, the tone of her voice piercing his skin like daggers.

"That's not what I should have said. Zora and I haven't been together since before I met up with you on Takonda," Kylo quickly clarified, but Rey was still seething. "I can prove it to you," Kylo removed the glove from his hand and offered it to her, pleading with his dark eyes.

Rey didn't take his hand, but her face still softened. The trust she had for him was evidence enough that he was not lying. Suddenly, Rey felt stupid, and not to mention guilty herself. "So I'm the other woman then?" She asked Kylo, her voice once again weak, her bottom lip quivering as she spoke.

"No," Kylo answered quickly. "What Zora and I had, it was never... It was never this," Kylo couldn't explain it any better. He had never felt this kind of passion with Zora, she was only another means of relieving his stress and rage. What he and Zora had was the same as Kylo ripping apart a control panel or choking out one of the Finalizer's generals. He would never, let alone be capable, of seeing that in Rey.

"She loves you," Rey responded while Kylo was coming to a sudden and abrupt realization.

"I know," Kylo responded, Rey finally placing her hand within his. Kylo felt instantly flooded with relief, her light growing and bringing him in closer to her. With his left hand, he unclasped his cape and stood up, abandoning it on the ground. "Come here," he mumbled as he sat next to her on the bed, pulling Rey into his lap and holding her there. She wrapped her arms around his neck and buried her face into his shoulder while Kylo gingerly kissed the side of her head.

"When was Hux here?" Kylo asked, feeling ready for any bad news Rey might give him, he felt like at that moment everything would be alright regardless of what she said.

Rey took forever to gather the courage to respond, but Kylo was patient instead of prying into her mind to find the answer himself.

"He caught me while I was on my way to try and steal a TIE fighter and leave," Rey decided to be truthful with him. If she began lying to him now, there was no point to her staying with him. She might as well have tried to escape again once Hux had left her alone.

With her admission, Kylo realized he wasn't ready for whatever Rey had to say, he never thought that he would drive Rey away so fast and it was _frightening_. The thought left his body frozen, blood turning to ice in his veins. He couldn't bear to lose her.

"Kylo," Rey removed her head from his shoulder to look at his face. "...Ben, I'm sorry."

Kylo's eyes snapped to her with the shock of his real name, but he couldn't properly react, he didn't even care she had used it. His body had still not fully processed what Rey had admitted, he hadn't even taken a breath. In a sense, it would have been easier to keep her safe. Rey would have no doubt been able to escape, and after a berating rant from Snoke, Kylo would have been sent after her once again. After that they could disappear, but...Would she even want him?

"I won't leave you," Rey whispered to him, bringing one of her hands up to his cheek and gently wiped away a stray tear that had fallen down his shocked face. "Don't be afraid, I won't leave," Rey tested a smile on her own lips and finally, Kylo relaxed.

"I'm not afraid," Kylo gently shook his head, examining Rey's face. He had to tell her. "I've been dying a little bit each day since you came back into my life," Kylo admitted and watched the smile fade from Rey's mouth. Rey leaving now would be nothing compared to what Snoke had planned for her, and the thought was killing him inside.

"What are you talking about?" She looked afraid, as if it were literal, what Kylo admitted.

Kylo's voice shook as he continued, watching Rey's eyes water as he said his next words, "I love you."

"You love me?" Rey blinked in shock. "We... You can't. N-not with Snoke, or the First Order. They won't let us..." Kylo couldn't deny that she was right, but Rey didn't know of his plan to keep her away from Snoke, she didn't know what Snoke wanted from her. "They'd destroy our lives," Rey added and Kylo tightened his grip on her, protectively.

"I think our lives have been destroyed already," Kylo told her, slowly watching the shock fade from Rey's face from his initial confession. He was no longer Ben Solo, and she was no longer the little girl he knew over a decade ago. "I truly, deeply, love you. And before we reach Snoke, I want you to know."

Rey stared back at him, this time she was in shock at what Kylo had told her, unsure of what to say or how to respond. Instead, Rey decided on a different reaction entirely and pulled Kylo forward to kiss him, pressing her lips to his gently in a physical manifestation of her response; that she loved Kylo.


	9. Chapter 9

_Yeah, I'm living far away on the face of the moon..._

Kylo sat at Rey's table, watching her meticulously tear apart the R4 Droid he had brought to Rey's room. He had noticed quickly that she was a silent worker, but didn't mind the chance to relax and pretend that he wasn't on the verge of starting a war with the First Order and the Supreme Leader for Rey.

"I need it fixed, not stripped for parts," Kylo teased her, his head in his hand as he lazed in his seat, watching Rey begin tearing unidentifiable parts out of the droid.

Rey stopped what she was doing to look over at Kylo, one of her eyebrows raised. "I don't have anyone to sell the parts to now, do I?" She responded to Kylo with sass of her own and he chuckled at her. "Besides I think the speaker might be blown on it. The thing is older than you and I combined," tinkering with the inner mechanism of the droid.

"And what would that mean?" Kylo asked her.

Rey didn't respond immediately to him, catching her tongue between her teeth as she worked. "New speaker." Kylo sighed, doubting he'd be able to easily find a replacement and doubting Rey could fabricate one. "Actually," Rey pulled another part out of the droid before standing up. She tossed the small part to Kylo, who caught it mid air. He opened his palm and saw a small fuse that looked like it had burned up.

"If you replace a _fuse_ and get him talking again, I'm executing the droid maintenance team that listed it as unsalable," Kylo told her as Rey stared down at her Jakku system model. Rey looked over to him, eyes wide, thinking that he was serious. "I'm joking," he added and set the burned fuse on the table. "I won't _execute_ them."

Rey looked relieved, but not by much. She looked back down to the model and gingerly began taking it apart, showing it much more finesse than she was showing the droid. Rey took one of the fuses she had used for the lights and moved back to the R4 droid. "This should fix him," Rey looked over to Kylo before piecing together the parts she had ripped out. "What are you going to do to them if it does?"

"Nothing," Kylo answered truthfully. He had picked out the droid because it was marked as junk, and wouldn't be missed when he sent it off. If he mentioned Rey's accomplishment to anyone, the Droid would be put back on maintenance schedules and would be noticed when Kylo sent it to the Resistance on Crate.

"Nothing?" Rey asked, before the silent droid bleeped happily in thanks to Rey. "You're welcome," she replied. Then the droid repeated the same thing. "You're welcome?" Rey repeated herself as well, louder than before. Again, the R4 droid repeated itself. "You're-!" Rey started before the Droid repeated itself yet again.

"Maybe that's why the fuse was blown?" Kylo tried not to laugh at Rey's frustration as the droid continued to happily bleep "thank you" to Rey.

Rey looked over to him, running a hand down her face before powering down the droid. "You don't need him tonight, do you?" Rey asked, standing up from the floor again and making her way to Kylo.

"It would be preferable," Kylo answered, "But maybe you can take a break." Rey smiled at him before curling up in his lap. Kylo kissed the top of her head, holding her in place

"Maybe after we sleep," Rey yawned. Kylo would be willing to oblige, but he really didn't have enough time.

"What if I keep you awake?" He suggested, raising an eyebrow as Rey looked up to him. Her brown eyes flickered from his to his mouth and Kylo knew she understood what he was getting at.

"Alright," Rey answered after a moment, giving into Kylo.

* * *

"You're certain this cannot be traced?" Kylo asked his two were standing in a nearly abandoned dock before a First Order TIE Fighter. At his side, Kylo had the R4 droid that Rey had coaxed back to life just hours previous.

"The fighter's been stripped. There's nothing the First Order can track it with. I'd be more worried about the Resistance shooting her down without any communication," Jasreil responded to him.

"A single TIE Fighter? It'll be going slow enough by then and not engaging them. We'll have to have faith they won't shoot it down," Kylo answered, looking down to the droid at his side. It beeped in concern but none of the men responded to it. Kylo was thankful that it hadn't gotten stuck in one of its loops.

"Faith? In the Resistance?" Jasreil asked Kylo, and Lisryk sighed, ever silent, next to him.

"Faith in their general," Kylo ignored the feeling he shared with his knights that this was risky and futile, trying to send a message to the Resistance. He knelt before the droid then, holding a memory drive between his thumb and forefinger. "Deliver this to General Organa and no one else. Tell her it is from Rey. Do you understand?"

The droid ejected the disc tray for Kylo with an optimistic and compliant beep and coo. Kylo placed the drive inside and stood, pointing silently to the TIE Fighter and the droid rolled inside.

"Send it off," Kylo ordered and both of his knights nodded.

* * *

TIE fighters never flew that slow. Poe had never seen it before, and honestly had no idea that they could move so slowly without dropping out of the sky. Still, he managed to tail it in his black X-wing until it landed at the Resistance base. He and the two other X-wing pilots circle around before landing themselves.

By the time Poe jumped out of his cockpit, BB-8 ejecting and rolling after him, there were several Resistance fighters surrounding the First Order spacecraft with their blasters aimed and ready. Even as he approached, more of the Resistance were crowding around the craft, both wary and confused. Finn naturally appeared next to Poe and asked the question everyone was thinking, "Who's inside?"

"I don't know, we couldn't see into the cockpit," Poe answered him, and both men made their ways to the front of the crowd, BB-8 hot on their heels.

"Do you think it's Rey?" Finn asked and almost made Poe trip over his own feet as he turned around to fully look at him.

"She... She would have contacted us first," Poe was shocked, and tried to rationalize the sudden question. "We could've shot her out of the air otherwise."

"What if she couldn't, what if..." Finn looked from Poe to the craft and pushed his way past the Resistance fighters to the entrance.

"Finn!" Poe called after him and followed, pulling his blaster out.

"What if she's hurt?" Finn asked, searching for a way to release the hatch.

"Let me go in first," Poe said, releasing it himself and cautiously making his way up with his blaster ready. He was able to tell Rey was not inside before he was fully in the cockpit.

"It's a droid," Poe told Finn as he climbed inside as well. With the two men and the droid in a "sleeping" state, the cockpit of the TIE fighter was immediately cramped. "Rey isn't here." Poe watched the slow flashing lights on the R4 droid's access panel. He looked back to Finn, who was disappointed their friend hadn't escaped and come back to them somehow.

"She might have sent it," Poe told him optimistically before reaching out to the droid's conical head and reactivating it. It was older, and took a moment for it to process and come back to life.

"Is it broken?" Finn asked, used to BB-8 snapping back into action after she was put into sleep mode.

"It's old," Poe smiled handsomely and winked at Finn.

"Like you then," Finn answered him, suppressing a smile himself.

"Hey, I'm not _that_ old," Poe answered the younger man before his smile faltered, the droid beeping and cooing.

"What's it saying?" Finn asked him as Poe's face fell. Both men had to move suddenly out of the way as the R4 began forward and made it's way out of the ship, repeating itself over and over.

"It's asking for General Organa," Poe said, quickly following the droid out of the cockpit.

"Why?" Finn asked, rushing out of the TIE fighter as well.

"Hey!" Poe called after the droid as it stopped before BB-8, repeating itself to the newer, smaller droid. "Yeah, I know. Why?" Poe answered BB-8 as she bleeped out the same thing.

BB-8 began working on a reason as a couple of Resistance fighters walked up to Finn and Poe. "It was just the droid?"

"Do a search, look for anything. Doesn't have to be a person or a droid. Tracker, data, holotapes," Poe told them and they quickly headed into the cockpit. Half distracted he barely understood BB-8's excited chirping.

"Rey?" Finn asked as the R4 ejected a memory drive.

"What-? Finn wait!" He yelled as the younger man snatched the drive from the R4 and sprinted off towards the control room. What he had caught was that Rey had sent the droid and had information for General Organa. Poe's gut feeling was telling him otherwise.

"Finn, stop!" He yelled, bursting through the same doors Finn had seconds prior. The doors boomed in the hallway as they smacked against the walls for the second time, allowing Poe and BB-8 R4 was following as well, at a much slower speed and got stuck outside.

As Poe entered the control room, he saw Finn jump over a large hologram projector and stuff the memory drive into an open slot. " _Finn_!" Poe tried to stop him, but it was too late, a life sized hologram recording of Kylo Ren was already standing in the middle of the room.

Finn looked horrified at what he had done, frozen in shock as the room resoundingly gasped and went silent. Poe ran around the table, sliding on his knees, and tried to get the Hologram to stop playing before he heard Kylo speak.

"Leia..." Kylo began before sighing. "Mom..."

Poe froze, his fingers millimeters away from ejecting the drive. He looked up at the projection in confusion and watched as Kylo removed his helmet, revealing the scar over his face that Poe vaguely remembered from a few weeks back.

"Mom, I..." Kylo kept false starting, the words sticking in his mouth. Poe turned around to see the general staring up at the hologram with everyone else, her mouth falling slightly open and tears welling in her eyes.

Kylo was struggling to continue, a gloved hand up to his face, rubbing his forehead. "I need help. I'm reduced to begging," Kylo sounded disgusted with himself as his hand dropped, and Poe moved away from the hologram, standing next to a shocked Finn. "Snoke... He's going to kill Rey. He's going to use her like... It's..." Kylo swallowed his sentence and tried again. "He's going to use her body to stay alive. He's going to kill her and I can't... I can't stop him."

"Damn," Poe said under his breath, recognizing the look on Kylo's face. He looked to Finn, knowing deep down he would do the same thing for his lover. He'd swallow his pride and ask for help from anyone who would listen. Leia Organa was Kylo Ren's last resort. Poe grabbed for Finn's hand then and the pressure he held his palm and fingers with was returned by Finn.

"I need your help," Kylo sighed, visually losing his sense of pride as he asked for his mother's help. "The R4 Droid has a map, I've plotted a course for you to reach us but... I need you here in four days. I don't know what you can do or how many men you can spare, but any distraction should be enough for me to help get Rey off the Finalizer and away from Snoke... Please, mom. Help me. You're my only hope," Kylo plead one final time before his hologram figure was replaced by a map that lead through the unknown and to the very edge of the galaxy.

"We can do that. Four days is doable," Poe nodded to himself as his mind kicked into overdrive, understanding the course Kylo had provided.

"No," his general spoke softly and he turned to look at her, letting go of Finn to point at the map.

"Look! Look at it, we can get there in three days if we left now, I'll take twenty or so of the X-Wings and we can-"

"No," Leia said sternly as Luke came and stood by her side, a metal hand resting on her shoulder.

"No?" Finn asked her, gutsy enough to question her.

"We can't spare any men and this could be the prelude to an ambush. I can't send you off to be slaughtered," she looked as stern as she was sad.

"We're gonna let Rey die?" Finn asked her, his eyebrows raised in shock.

"You saw that same hologram recording I just saw right?" Poe spoke up. "You saw his face?" He waited for a reaction he wouldn't receive. Instead he restarted the hologram. "Listen to him and look at him, there's better ways to catch us unaware," he pointed as Kylo began to speak.

Luke held his hand out and the hologram flickered off, the memory drive flying out of it's slot and into his open palm. "We can't risk it."

"Rey is going to _die_!" Finn stressed.

"She made her choice when she left with him," Luke ended the conversation. Poe grabbed onto Finn's arm, knowing to quit when he didn't, and the two left after a confused beep from BB-8.

"We can't let her die," Finn said once they were outside. "We aren't going to, are we?"

Poe, though furious, looked calm. "No, we aren't... I saw that map," he said, trying to concentrate and remember what he was able to see for the ten seconds it was in front of him. He looked suddenly to BB-8 by his side, as well as the R4 droid who had been shut out of the control room. He looked back to Finn and saw a spark ignite his eyes, and Poe knew they were thinking the same thing.

* * *

Poe only had six of his men agree to this, something that would be considered treason. He and Finn had planned to fly the TIE Fighter, while the six of his best tagged along on this suicide mission in their X-Wings. Everyone understood what this was, he had made it clear to the point he was sick of hearing himself talk. Now, under the cover of night, they were preparing to leave.

"I remember the last time you tried to fly one of these," Finn told Poe as they got ready to get into the cockpit of the TIE Fighter.

" _Tried_ to fly one?" Poe found himself smiling at Finn's playful quip.

"You did crash it," Finn winked as he adjusted the harness he had on.

"Only because you couldn't shoot down the cannons and fighters following us," Poe teased back and walked up to him. "We'll do better this time around."

"We'll have Rey to help us out," Finn said, keeping the optimism up.

"She can fly _and_ shoot," Poe nodded, stopping as he came up to Finn. Despite the light mood between them, and despite his own joking remarks, he was worried.

"Hey," Finn noticed. Poe reached out to hold Finn's cheek in his hand, scanning his face and fighting the urge to tell him to stay behind.

"You know I love you," Poe told him, still holding Finn's cheek.

"I love you too," Finn responded, as serious as Poe was now. "But you aren't making me stay behind," he added and made to move away from Poe and get into the TIE Fighter. Poe grabbed onto Finn, more aggressive this time and pulled him back. Before Finn could protest, Poe's mouth crashed into his in a fierce kiss.

"I love you means you can't die," he told Finn between kisses.

"Neither of us will die," Finn reassured Poe, pulling back from his mouth to wrap his arms tightly around his lover in a hug. "I told you, we're getting Rey and coming home."

Poe was going to respond, however movement in the dark surrounding them caught his eye. He turned to see who was walking towards them and let go of Finn as he recognized Luke and Chewbacca. Finn became just as rigid and weary as Poe with all intimacy of the moment lost.

"What's your plan?" Luke stopped next to Chewie before them.

"Distraction," Finn answered first. Poe looked away from Luke for a moment to Finn.

"With a handful of Resistance fighters at your side?" Luke asked them and Chewie agreed that it was a dumb idea in his own language.

When Poe looked back to Luke and Chewie, he saw more Resistance pilots and fighters following them. "We almost couldn't agree which was worse, pretending not to know about this and sending you to your deaths, or putting faith in Kylo Ren and sending the help he asked for."

"Why the change of heart?" Poe asked as the grounds lit up, the pilots all getting their crafts ready for flight.

"I realized I've left Rey to fend for herself too many times already," Luke answered him, reviving Poe's hope for the mission.


End file.
